SStechion i pares 


esp thiigy sis ses Te SS Sass 
eee cetits eeees absense SSSSsis Sas nears atts etree 


PSS eigen 


























A 


a Or a - 
1 oe -— F 
; 


LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


PRINCETON. N. J. 





PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND. 


Oe Cnn (at 
RE ae 
PR a ne 


i 


SY 


ty 


HOE 8, 4 Fh Nl 
ce LORNA P ANNE 
fe »' fare hy 


peat! rts 


“sh 
An 
7 Aya, 
VN 
‘a. 

th 





| wp 


Ly inion : 
At ve yer mK t, 
; il aed 


ae 


i 


j 
a) 


a 


pat ad bet ¥ 
fi 


La Ae ie 
; a 
é 





=. . 

VAY, "i o va ws 

i : ah vf 
iu ind is 


7 Cw 9 





ieee 


VICTORIA 





ANSHE InNE AUN COP aU MS Ceyas 


HE great regions round the Victoria Nyanza 

epitomize the story of Africa. Eastward tower the 

snow peaks of Kenya and Kilimanjaro, westward 

lies the Ruwenzori Range. Northward from the 

great Lake issues the Nile, whose source was a 
problem of the ages. Through the Kenya Highlands the Rift 
Valley cleaves its southward way, and on the fertile plateaux 
thousands of feet above it, settler, immigrant and Native strive 
over a common basis of life. Sparsely populated ‘Tanganyika 
runs up into Urundi and Ruanda rich in the wealth of human 
life. ‘The trusteeship of Europe for Africa is shown in colony, 
protectorate and mandated territory, where Great Britain, Ger- 
many and Belgium have contributed to the development of 
country and people. The railway has opened the country from 
coast to lake. Already the cotton fields of Uganda count in the 
trade of the world. ‘Triumphs of medical research are con- 
quering tropical disease. A new day for Africa has begun to 
dawn. Alike among the wild Masai, the virile Kavirondo, the 
responsive tribes of Uganda, on the Highlands of Kenya and on 
the shores of the Lake, education is preparing the African for 
life and for leadership. Christian communities are developing into 
ordered life. Missionaries and governments are jointly at work. 
As the Africa of to-day has moved far from the Africa of yesterday, 
so the Africa of to-morrow begins in fuller measure to emerge 


ios2ort +2 eee = se ea rose seee este sees ee 
Me kenya fe 


Mt Mfumbre 
Mt Mihavere a it Margherita 
gst sees 








Q 
Pe 
ALGERIA( 5 


5. See 


Kang 


igieta /* 


a, Sea 





! 
at hits 


y 
éMatadi 


vee 


Loanda 


AFRICA 


ITINERARY 
AFRICAN EDUCATION COMMISSIONS 
PHELPS-STOKES FUND 


WEST AFRICA, JULY 15,1920 to SEPT 10, 1921 \ 
EAST AFRICA, DEC. 29,1923 to AUG. 25, 1924 


Route travelled in 1920 -/ ----- 
" » 1924. 


sternatonal Boundaries oe 


English Miles 


° 200° 400 600 800 /000 
————————— 


‘ANGLO EGYPTIAN} 


. ELGIAN ‘CONGO } 


( 


SUDAN ‘ y SOMALILAND 


SRITISH | 


r 
(Addis Ababa. * SOMALILAND ¢ 


NX, ABYSSINIA.’ ~ 73) 








WWM! Kenya.» 
Victorian So . ties 
Myanza.~ m Nairobi 


/ Kabale*? 


¥ Mime jaro c 
M sh lombasa 
7y ap slavere / 


Zanzibar 
Dar-es-Salaam 


i 

















ahiy OF PRING 
> ‘al > 






V 
FEB 2 G*19 
5 J 1929 


EDUCATION IN HAST AFRICA 


A Study of ,East, Central and South 
Africa by the second African Education 
Commission under the auspices of the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund, in cooperation 
with the International Education Board 


Report prepared by 
Tuomas JESSE JoNES, Ph.D. 
Chairman of the Commission 


PHELPS-STOKES FUND 
101 Park Avenue 
New York 


London : Edinburgh House Press 
2 Eaton Gate, S.W.1 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/educationineasta00phel 


CONTENTS 


PST ROpUCTION es by DrAnson: Phelps Stoked. . a. oes os et ck cue Xili 
Aree tele eee STOMA PR TCAM SAV AEM EH Se a2 ie eh ao Men eee NTN gi) om) 3 
CHAPTER I]. EpucaTionaL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS ............0.0. vi 
MLAtACLeML ey GlOopMenteanemen one ieh stn ee N eet eee aL aE 12 
EICOInAL VES CODOMSUDIECLSMM Herc sae feet cr monte) er inn SRA” Hirer 9 Fd, 15 

TBE WAV UE Be CEA Ta el BANS Mahe B Capon) ile Pace yi pa i a eh AA 9 Ca oie UA hel 19 
PLCOUDEADOSEAY PICT CH Ae er cut Merc tae en Powe ince Ieee ve fen ccuas 22 
PIGMICBACELVINICS EMA eat Mee Te at ee te Ce ee 25 
BRCLCALION toot tate eae N Ne ee casks PSI te! eS Ce ot eee Be 31 
AVE A OLN CRV ER co ak ol, he de Raia ete rat REA Ne ai Ws Sel a mR Ceara 35 
LEOCETUS a8 PS MSY cal on aie tye A eh att i ll Peg el ap ha a aS Lig deta ns 40 

BU SeTs MO UCALON 2. meer tio Pat ere GOL See Se eWay Wn ROME ra 43 
CHAPTER IIT.) EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION .../:-¢-0:scicsseceeeceees 46 
SUL DEL ESTO Ll Meare et ee ae AN Ose haere we corcae haere 2 aa Oa Ay Oe eee eae 50 
DTeCtOMOr, dea Lone owt for eee sist. hoe eee) ae eae 50 
Advisory Committee on Native Education ..............00..2.000. 51 

So yvero Ment SUPEEVISI OL 5c Ae elieerd hie ee eat Mae ta ie ae 53 

DU SSIONISUDEEVISIONM ies cunits VAY Mth CLR e AEN AGIs oes ies 54 

Wisiting Teachers for, Villave Schools. ~ 4ctucauiik eee ee 54 
Supervision of Accounts and Buildings ...................+...0- 0. 55 
Oren Z Lon Ol Schooloyetettic. -. «sats acraa hai ge eee 57 
NAMEN Coe Te Tele} S) AoE a cea OER a Ge Mae em Ae SI Ree a TEE yee 59 

Centrale Villagei schools «Sia eteta' | nn). eG Aker een ee 60 

Slaton SchOOlsear sta eins kiitrs sce ot aha eee Oe ee ie 61 

entra lL Stationesenools er. tae ce te uth ok ee eee ee 62 

Colonial Native Colleges. gert ono she cee aR ne ie eo ae 68 
Educational: Hix tension teat aie eo eis ae ae ee ee 69 
CHAPTER IV. CoopERATION FoR AFRICA AND AFRICANS .............----. 76 
PDEs Ol COOper a tiOn ume ho, a, ok wel Cte eae Weenie, VN'b cent eee ite, 79 

The Home: Ropulationje was 1c. cei tenmt RR ae AN ere ora a 79 
ThesMandate System : ahs s 1 hiss eee Coton eae Ree et oe 80 

The: United States,oivA mericatts- 4 gee oe ty ee ee 80 

niithera rican: Colonieg@n. (ieee crcl s\n 2. toe ese ee ee 81 

Tbe Union of Southes frice mrvsrt |. tu Mra, Sema eee see 82 

Loe Colonial Governinen tech, niin eee ne na oe eee ee 84 


pepe WeonomiG Gloupsee, Scie crs Osan oe. tn aed Pee ed 86 
The Missions 


iv CONTENTS 


Forms of Cooperation... 60eslea ce ence eins tee eels deanna ates oee8 92 
Government and Cooperation ....-++.secee eres ere ects seececset 93 
Interdepartmental Cooperation .....++e+eeee eee ee reer eter sses 93 
Cooperation of Government and non-Government Units ........-- 94 
Government Cotncils® oe. one 2s oe ince gis eres tie ia a eter le emer eae 95 

Missions and Cooperation «0... sees eect ec eee renee seeseronesess 96 

Natives and Cooperation: 22's.) 5c o% sl sos sim nena etter er sagieemonsn tats 97 

CuapterR V. KeENyA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE ..--+++ssereessserrsees 101 
I. Economic and Sociological Background... 1.1... +++ seeeere resets 102 © 

The Native People jth te osce oe aie yes eee tear ee eas 103 

The. Country dec trsino! oucnne sioinin's diet ehetous- meet ew 8 sic) )arr rts ae sae ea 108 

European Influences::.- 02+ >see sae iin cir eae 109 

T1.2 Bdtication 2. 6.4% edie esta sue eles aca sie ait ofelalern lola» poste, ices tie fe cae ia amenad ia 114 

Government Education. .s..5. 0c eet ete e cer ene tase csinnc seme s 118 

Mission SchoolSiccs «otc vs.0 oe esecce'> nie seeeoin titeile a te ylnanual ghia cas 120 

III. Summary and Recommendations. ....-..+++++sseeere rr rer esstecees 134 

CHaprer VI. THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE ....--+++ecccssersrssrecceess 142 

I. Economic and Sociological Background. ......++++sseeeeeeerrrtteeees 142 

The Peoples. om tate cutsretaen siege oe aren tee * el aeisiele ora ea 143 

he sCountry.cercdentee ss seach eo eis CMO oe oa oa ae 146 

Buropean influences 0.00).% ede eel one ie Bena 147 

TU BR AUICALION Ge eee ate cite ore ime a seas eee tca ae aay il ra aerge ices cera 151 

Government and Education. .......-.es eee se cece certs nse cteeces 155 

Missiott SCHOOIS Sager cet aig ors siate oe Rie sake grec 2 er Pinos 314,009 cam mac ante ai 156 

III. Summary and Recommendations. .....-+++-++esereres testers sesct es 162 

CHAPTER VII. TANGANYIKA TERRITORY ..-.-s0-+s+eesceeer rer ceases sees 169 

I. Economic and Sociological Background... .......+-++sseeererertstsees 169 

Tha. Pedples..hoe sate cle ai les 0 ste sieimhe ere a reed Se 171 

The COUnUry savlo ce vie we « sn eienp sew twee aie se ere as tele ea 174 

HuropeanInfiuences.. sinc a.) ile. erie reign aoe to cl eae 175 

TIS Bidcati one cates ne wip cals tere om spe claim miners Ye aueur pe itia Sletiige eye shct mae ane aaa 178 

Government: Schools (0.5 2. Fahey On en ate lle aie Mae ol seating sae 181 

Missions SchOOls< v2) stereos everate ata tescsare te wea tnre rote te = ston quarear renee ete 183 

III. Summary and Recommendations. .....--+++++sseeererserrsssssece ts 188 

CHaprern VIEL. GNYASALAND 10.0305 00e «i650 sespeime)~)-1> + = ke) ooenass oe ence 193 

I. Economic and Sociological Background. .....--+-++serersrerssttttte 193 

The People: cc cet es ame as oo sae ule en aie rile is esas at eee 195 

The: COUDETY sc)ae + cise 0 scrmb auc coe wre engin 9 olan Sen an cee oe 196 

Buropean Influence. .',. .tsaieclds 2+ +.ctes a cninirs att Serge cea 196 

TL. Wducation 22 actes w= bien eC eiessejere Sh © scary oat Olea tege ahs Seine cee a 199 

Mission SChOOIS:: « s.c0: 4 sos oie site e he wie an aes git Ole et eRe ane 200 


III. Summary and Recommendations ......+.+++sseeerrret eres tests 215 


CONTENTS 


ee Pre NG Loe ANZIBAR EE ROTHOLORA TE (sin) totic stot tes cae ta de om ols pe 
I>, Economic and Sociological Background © 1.22.02. 005s sere eee ee cee 
EOP CO Dre amare otic tion th ele hakaienal PM a ars oles aie eaaye alle. alee & 
Arab and Huropean Influences... ...50....0 sees eee ces e teense 
DP SOMEICLLICAGLOL Mercia tates ota ric ofthe cata oh vat elaite la's equa ee oweiG geee le gM eg ee mig “8 
TOV CETINENT ONOOI Se: clctoid igs ore oka eke wyeie te ie ke BLA © en Shai aiariapatese, =) Sree 
Mission yaChOOlsisc.s cwaae « Ue teG Sesrs sd dateleis alnlie, Dobe: at «thle Rosin, afd ole) st, sie 
III. Summary and Recommendations ............ccecece reece eee te cees 
(HAPTER Ar DOUPHEHN: ILHODESIA | sic sates 8 nrc te soso gee ee ee tine ole vyiele eins 3 
I. Economic and Sociological Background ..............0e eee cree ences 
PGP COD Lem eet tee e ale rata he er yale he seat coins Afishe Peers aire fas ate eas (He 
PL LiGs COUMDUE VERRY aren rats ke ioe eer «ICE cece oes aiege Aiarers He Wea bia anele 
PGUPOPEAMILUNMCTI CO me wire 5 lak test Lotte ns spieatcs ctskm alg uote mac uginuphs Os 
ME PUB UCLICALLOTNU MONI eect oe nec Py Cee oder Sanliesle eto ho Me Sere amie at aelie ian ie el ee Be VE 
Government Schools tata stat «oue og ontta te bits a sate clare ears atts 
MISSTOMMSCDOOLS Bera ern che sod ecaee city cee vies creep state auc iete niet as eae 
Hilyoummary.and Recommendations = oii ie. oo sie ais ane siete te es defo eis 28s 
CHARTERS Le NORTHERN HHOUESIAG: Helse. tpiteheo) a aoters ansbels a wtone slat ale eaiatens ates 
I. Economie and Sociological Background ....... ee TEE AI MRA thay 
eT Thes Penile a cr Mnesite nso Uitte oe slots atatctati tlio’ Ma tabi ate abegl atale Te uee g Peahes 
De COUniy yor erie cc hearin ts eaters eee, reser eet enaad deg ening oremal 3 
SUYOPeaTE LNUUEN Ces Meret. ee: nee yearns tre peeernT tee rAt Stas. wes atte 
PD meee LLU item te atts clan uate, oe he eee tee a ats nT ahaha ee thn ite tne eee 
IMISSIGNIOCNODIG ce mee ccs eons he sees ruate te ee cs. Map aaa ee nee a eons 
GOVerIIMeN AS OIOO Sage delaras caters} els ea a atatenare Miaiahgne sas a retocs 
LLiee UII Ary ANG ReECOMMCNUALIONS iyo date me Ge ve tie cletere tisiaee i iele ate kena 
CHAPTER XII. BasuTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND ....,.....-. 
Ie) Economic and Sociological Backoround 2 vii) tule. ae soe siege oo pee a's 
(aye Basutoland Perm usse oh as’: cote nace |< Rete eatn or tld oranda cima pats 

(Dye Rechianalan ding seca Gc .taie wie oe exeletoy eta atve a Mant atencreteoars ts 
Ge ones WELZA LAT C Seti re ce tae torte of tleles RE WS ei aliciet ote ee adatigs Oot nione teeter enters 
D PPRICALICAGIOIL te tal rates elo cre te ole Mh Pat thats e's aerate any Set Tete Seohite: aioe cenetnanio ent 
(DY MISABUICOLANIC es ere ek ale Fie ao od bs ae eras Rahn Slee prave ars bln a can mateets foie 
(Pye bechtianaland enc ae ercy murs eis ale hater ew cette ele iatetensrennnl tr 
CC) Srrw a Zula Benen fle ge iictat ers Mage wictal eis spent nlclatens, tare hates gabe reals 
EPI oumMMary AUG RECOMMENGATIONS: ots, acer sete aietole ale Dees eiaty cate! whe Mt necong 
RAPIER IOC EL Me TNUANDALANDC UW RUND Mile ite teleie, ors phirec'eshestetbed ian asks tux soles s 
2 Econonuc and sociological Background | o5).'s.aj..- ere cestte a brssltatee hd ches ois 
PHCLCOUULT Vow ares ete Weds to ee woo healed f Meine estore eine pe shee 
RIG COT Leta nets Steir pete s tesets cote: che! ate Wad cae oie w olte aimee rey ain oh 


IQIIEO DEAT LUAETICES wera titece areiaha reece cealaia solide ang | comet e ola 


vi CONTENTS 


TE SE dcation. ...'.% 5 \skete setae one epithe etal sete sass hella avaaeeone hes a tate a ee ae ee 289 
Government Education ey 2. +e steec cs eit at ee nena ae 290 
Mission Schools), va. ctiscc > oe Bi csabeoclahe ois eels eae eee eee ee ere 291 
TilSummary ‘and Recommendations tei. a... a. 2 ee ce eee nes aves 293 
CitapTER XIV, “PORTUGUESE HiASTHAFRICA (2 .,.c0)-ssictctet oleraye aie MY SRS aan eg he 296 
I, “Economic and Sociological Backeround: 025.2 -. <meta eee? 297 
The: People: oriacc ais Sete se ope tans ojos ws ape ba abit ai hee Wey ol pre eee eet bare 297 
Le COUNETY Sek oa BAe wie ister es eee ang cla eee cones fer oi ote REE eee ora ee 299 
EuropeancInfluiences og. ote. os 2s ocr eepei ene ate ea one stairs te eee 300 
LIS Kedlucation? sesso eke Bc tee vee apis ieee ie cen eens a oe iets ee ee ee ee 304 
Government/and Municipal Schools. 27a). cele sie sts crue aero occ 306 
Mission SChools') Sess eters cate hosek lo en eaeeiale sie occ niet e enema 307 

Lite Summary and: Recommendations ry.) ats seems = ate oie errand see tae 312— 
CHAPTER OX Vi) (ABYSSINIA INS sian eiatd aie hs ciee, on Be ace ny tees anal at chorea area 316 
1; ‘Economic and Sociological Background: 2-..-.. . 3 en gets Sie felons 317 
ERE Coun Gr yin. ce oie oe oe taal w rele en ret ot eee alee te eet: een meee 319 
he Beopler: cavaces ote iinve ante sa oc see aneptnn Ai gg Seren Venta ot, et eae 320 
European Infliences tr. sr aildsiste, ebay’ Cave eee a ays eae 324 
DToG WAUCR ELON Fe: y ctocises chee Gea ecoae se Foe 8 ecu keep ee a ae as 326 
Churchand Government schools’: 2. . ii. .tea 2. Sea ee eee 326 
Mission: SCHOO] Ss sean ioe cee wove Sees cies ede (ca eee paca on 327 
RIT ummaryuand: Wecommendations =r ctle vier at te moe ke areca epee 330 
HlementsOLeOpe: ie fg tas ae intel: ceharel aia: «loge Pokeapale con emo reae 331 
Kiducational#Recommendationso:re.a 3 ncs.uet dees eee oe 336 
CHAPTER XV) ) THE: EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 94.7. ..00.u es eee 339 
The Importance of the Nducation-of Women © 2 2.".20. pele 2 ot teenies 339 
Iilustratrons*ol, GoodsWork 7k tev See oes lori tee eerie cree 342 
Obstacles and ‘Dithicttl ties a4 Peeve « sco Ste Aan se ole colt catered Seem eee tar 346 
Reeonamendations es css skeet alata co oe aa a cree eee 349 


SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. AGRICULTURE IN East Arrica. Dy Dr. Homer 
L. Shantz 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


SPE Rom PASSA Tel pe E LGA eat ats eee Santa Se Satiehe jakeye sy oats Pt oval pee 8 Jetpeels Frontispiece 


Epa EL Ae oes LEE? CL) VV AY a wroletece hen ate ate) 2. sye/ sie vial ate sys To face page 
(a) A Black Magician, Portuguese East Africa; (b) An Exorcist and 
his Wife, Portuguese East Africa; (c) A Medicine Man’s Gear, 
Kenya; (d) The Old Way and the New 


gener ood oe Ed A Tee LEBEN Is Wig) VV A Vckici tc Situs the ovgnat thet Atip ery iehce gt ofebe cos MEU eke 8 
(a) Dispensary at Kikuyu; (b) Swiss Doctors at Work, Portuguese 
Kast Africa 





Prate (ils, (RECREATION=—CHITDREN AT PLAY 200 Gs... Sica cites oye eo > 
(a) Boy Modelling Animals in Clay, Bechuanaland; (b) “ Drop the 
Handkerchief,” Tanganyika; (c) Christian Children at Play, Kikuyu 


IiATHA LV PHYSICAL CULTURE 21. %.aie opts. cle = wilete teres art ales s\otets het nla Spe slots oays « 
(a) First XI, Maseno School, Kenya; (b) Boys’ Brigade, Kikuyu ; 
(c) The School Bathing, Likoma, Lake Nyasa ; (d) Drill at St. Peter’s 
High School, Uganda 


OATH RY SER OLRVANTSUOM PAPRICA stot elcie cc tre cle sca tveie lave sired whalts reacteraeve es) ots 
(a) Veterans in Nyasaland: Dr. Laws (center), Dr. Murray (right), 
Dr. Hetherwick (left) ; (6) M. Henri Junod and Native Pastors of the 
Swiss Mission ; (ce) Native Women Teachers, Uganda; (d) A Swedish 
Missionary Nurse ; (e) The Educational Commission 


PEATESVICERKINDLY EP RUITS OF THEO LARTH © «ae lole s octiecsle to coe Sierhees ae Helse ae 
(a) Cotton and Duca, Uganda; (b) Native Granaries, Abyssinia ; 
(c) Mealie Field, Domboshawa, Southern Rhodesia ; (d) Drying Sisal 
Fiber at Voi, Kenya 


PratE VL: CAPRICAN SNOW PEAKS iit ci. -' os <6 oes clr siels s sues # + melo tecpieiese eyes 
(a) Mount Kilimanjaro, seen from Moshi; (2) Mount Kenya’s Twin 


Peaks 


BPuATES VILL. DHE INLAND SEAS OF AFRICA 05 oso. oi o'b'e: clase «a eteinle, vlys elas s oe 
(a) On the Shores of Lake Tanganyika; (b) Victoria Nyanza, near 
the Source of the Nile; (c) Lake Nyasa 


Puate IX. Sawyers aT WorRK, SOUTHERN RHODESIA........-200seeee-es 


Pr Ape ee EMV ICTORIA MAITSLON THEY LAMBEZL ©) ile ais oyerels asec hats eielifen «6 


20 


36 


37 


68 


68 


69 


69 


viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PuaTe XI. GOVERNMENT EpucaTION IN INDUSTRY AND  AGRI- 
CULTURE <1. tt . To face page 
(a) Animal acta iSieo ae the vali Repormental Station, 
Southern Rhodesia; (#) Animal Husbandry: Son of a Champion, 
Tjolotjo, Southern Rhodesia ; (c) Kikuyu Students at the Scott Agricul- 
tural Laboratory, Nairobi; (d) Public Works Training Department, 
Nairobi 
PuaTe XII. Merans or COMMUNICATION IN KENYA.........000ceeeeeceeees 
(a) On the Road near Fort Hall; (b) A Flying Bridge across the Athi 
River; (c) A Reinforced Concrete Bridge, Ruiru; (d) Bridge in the 
Southern Masai Reserve ; (e) A Government Direction Post 


PuaTE XIII. Misstonary Cooperation in Mass AND AGRICULTURAL 
EDUCATION (ose vis ses cesar se ee ee ie cae Cr rE 
(a) Meeting of the Kavirondo Native Welfare Association, March 6, 

1924; (b) Agricultural Show at Fort Hall 


PLATE, XL Viel LYPES. OF-NATIVES KENYA ve ies sate oe oe re ee cee 
(a) Masai: Raw and Trained ; (b) Wataita Women Carrying Bananas ; 
{c) Going Home in Kumasia Suk; (d) A Kikuyu Young Man; 
(e) A Christian Boy, Kikuyu 


PuaTE XV. ScHooL WorK IN AKAMBA AND KAVIRONDO..........2.cs00005 
(a) Technical and Industria] Mission at Wusi, Taita; (b) Visiting an 
Out-school in Akamba District ; (c) Boys at a Lathe, Maseno 


PLATE XVI eDIvERsIrins OF OPERATIONS: KIKUYU. siete reeeioinate 
(a) Girls’ Dormitory: Occupants of the Nursery; (b) Learning to 
Sew ; (c) Agricultural Apprentices ; (d) Some of the Hospital] Staff, 
Tumutumu 


PracmeX VU avIN UGA DAN (1) cistents vec bs. o ecb-olemie tata rene chetermcl eet cee ee 
(a) Bishop Tucker Memorial College, Mukono; (b) Mission Hospital, 
Mengo 


Brats yx V LU IN Se UGENDAR( 2) Pare vices ccc tease in mere ea ge aro 
(a) Girls’ Boarding School, Iganga; (b) The Fish Market, Kampala ; 
(c) School at Mill Hill Mission, Iganga; (d) The King’s School, Budo 


Prate KX. SINS UGANDA (8) ieee, ace eee een eee ae eee eee 
(a) Camping in Kigesi; (b) In the Ruwenzori Range; (c) A Lesson 
to Ward Girls, Toro 

PLATE XX, GINSU GANDA (A) ia swede 5 waldo» aguities arte esse eieaeetea a ee ae 
(a) Native House, Ngora; (b) Tower with Drums, Ngora; (c) Nabu- 
male Exhibition : Work of the High School ; (d) Nabumale Exhibition : 
Work of the Day Schools 


100 


100 


101 


101 


132 


133 


148 


148 


149 


149 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PrATE XX Ls, INO LANGAN VIKA (1) siyeinesia te se Fee ney pele ys eels To face page 
(a) Government School at Tanga: Parent-Teachers. Meeting ; 
(b) Government School at Shinyanga ; (c) Village Out-school beyond 
Korogwe; (d) Visiting Mission Out-schools, Usambara 


Pe cree Poe) IN PANGAN YIKA (2) are clea select si igh nie end 3) haat Sree creer aps mys 
(a) The former Leipzig Mission House, Machame; (b) General View 


of the School, Machame ; (c) Wachagga Boys 


Puate XXIII. Four Nvasatanp Misstons—(1) BLANTYRE .............. 
(a) Boys at Drill: 7.30 a.m. ; (b) Out-school Teachers coming in for 
Training ; (c) A Village Schoo] at Zomba ; (d) Hoeing in the Cotton 


Garden. 





PLate XXIV. Four NyaAsaLanp Misstons—(2) LIVINGSTONIA...........- 
(a) Pupils Gardening ; (b) Apprentice Builders at Work 


PuateE XXV. Four NyasaLAND Misstions—(3) UNIVERSITIES’ MISSION ..... 
(a) Women’s Dispensary at Kota Kota; () Church with Thatched 
Roof and Birch Walls, Kota Kota; (c) Some Women Teachers at 


Likoma 


PLateE XXVI. Four NyasaLanp Misstons—(4) MKHOMA .........-.+0000- 
(a) Panorama: Group of Girls from Dutch Reformed Mission ; 
(b) The Mission Buildings at Mkhoma; (c) An Old Chief Learning to 
Spin ; (d) Pisé de terre Building : Mission Boys 


PLATE XV Lie IN’ZANZIBAR AND PEMBA ; (i080 tant? Wilidied Hah Mlle kh «ed ois 
(a) Native Village in Zanzibar ; (b) Bridge in Pemba. Mohammedan 
Prayer Platform in Rear; (c) A Pemba Christian; (d) Pemba 


Costumes 


TTB VAL Tol IN A NZEBA RS. iy sty nit cis’ ara nge tone ol ighet ope chetare aoe. ailel ake tenets he dere 
(a) Stairway and Ancient Door at Kiungani; (b) A Typical Native 
Street; (c) The First Zanzibar Scouts and Wolf Cubs; (d) House 


and Garden at Kisengundi 


rere X LX, LS SOUTHERN RHODESIA (1) 097 i deie oinetcbee ae oe Rite deters Foes 
(a) Cecil Rhodes’s Grave, Matopos Hills ; (b) Domboshawa School- 
boys Building a House; (c) Brickmaking, Tjolotjo; (d) Carpentry 
Instructor and his Wife, Tjolotjo 


- Puatre XXX. In SouTHERN RHODESIA (2)......6-- 6. cece eee e eens 
(a) Mount Silinda: First Ordination Council, 1924; (6) Old Umtali 
Mission: Nurses from Maternity Ward; (c) Class in Hope Fountain 
Girls’ School 

A2 


ix 


164 


196 


196 


197 


197 


229 


229 


x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Pirate XXXI. A Mission Stratton IN NortHErRN RuopesiA ..To face page 
(a) Mission Buildings, Kafue ; (b) Principal’s House, Kafue ; (c) Pri- 
mary Department, Girls’ School, Mbereshi ; (d) Carpentry, Mbereshi ; 
(ec) The Mission Courtyard, Girls’ Boarding School, Mbereshi 


PEATE XX XID IN- BECHUANALAND f200 Mele ore 6 oie wi ries «1c calevehsrgiot-ie sietgre = aieta t+ 
(a) and (b) Chief Isang and his Town Mochude ; (c) School Built by 
Chief Isang, Mochude ; (d) Chief Isang’s Round House, Native Built 


PLATE XX XID © IN RUANDAA( Ly oecettee ole eae agnieta iets wie estate se eee ee 
(a) Itinerating by Canoe; (b) The Mufumbiro Mountains 


PLATE OX XXIV.) IN RUANDA) (2) scfol fete anys» oe eine os late o5sis aipiyp ep otratntene amet 
(a) Belgian Missionary Directing the Weaving of Carpets from Banana 
Fiber; (b) On Medical Itineration; (c) Group of the Tal] Batusi 


PLATE XX XV. sg NePORTUGUESE, MASTEAERICAL( DL) (otra Norse Uetaks ole yere oeetemtnrs 
(a) Girls at Makulane; (b) Plowing, Chikambale; (c) Boys and 
Donkeys in Antioka; (d) Native Dance, Antioka 


PLATE, XXX VirgInePORTUGUESE/KAST APRICAs(2). cio ca ecn see, s ste eee 
(a) An Open-air Lesson ; (b) A Lesson in Drill; (c) Building a Mission 
School; (d) A Sewing Class in Makulane 


PIATESXOCX ViILDSt IN GAB YSSINIAS(1) Force wtaie tshale eegdn Gh stone tne een falas Crna ec re 
(a) Market at Addis Ababa : General View ; (b) The Vegetable Market ; 
(c) In the Hay and Wool Market ; (d) Court Scene in the Market 


Brann XOXev LORIN A BYSSINTA*( 2). gues cae cttcly ote + che can ei aE eens ch ete 
(a) Weaving Loom and Cotton Thread; (b) Weaving Cotton Cloth ; 
(c) Men Washing Clothes ; (d) A Little Galla Girl 


PLATE RX XI Ra, GIRES “AT SCHOOL (Li oc wegeit to epemomate ae ithe ats aroke cele ere 
(a) and (b) The Girls’ School, Nabumale, Uganda; (c) The Waddilove 
Institute, Nengubo, Southern Rhodesia 


PiatEe XC. <Giris AT ScHooLt—(2), MBERESHBAtiost nt. «ete Pak ce es eee 
(a) Girls Marching ; (b) At Net Ball; (c) Dormitories and Playground 


Piate: XD» sWoMEN AT WORK i:00).050<%. « Uekislog 2 be Ol Mie Gere gee 
(a) Mission Girls Fetching Firewood at Kikuyu ; (b) Women Drawing 
Water, Abyssinia; (c) Women Resting while Repairing a Roof, 
Southern Rhodesia; (d) Woman Working on Threshing Floor, 
Bechuanaland ; (e) Kikuyu Women, with String for Bag-making 
and Straw for Thatching 


260 


261 


292 


293 


308 


309 


324 


340 


341 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi 


Brave XL MeTHons OF “AGRICULTURE (1) 7.025.552. nae es T'o face page 357 
(a) Coffee Trees, Warangu, Tanganyika; (b) Granaries for Storage 
of Eleusine, Uganda ; (c) Native Plowing before the Rains, Abyssinia ; 
(d) Native Plow and Yoke, Abyssinia 


Pigeon wih Mernovs OF AGRICULTURE (2) 15). cl esadc dese wns «2 oe eee see 385 
(a) Ridges Ready to be Planted, Tabora, Tanganyika; (b) Mixed 
Native Agriculture, Wusi; (c) Native Woman Digging Sweet Pota- 
toes, Uganda; (d) Open-headed Sorghum, Domira Bay, Nyasaland ; 
(e) Cassava, Ujiji, Tanganyika 


PAA TEs ELV ct LUAS TOA PREGA. GATS, thas Weicis choise Sod dee 9 she alta dua ate wre wlevgye «as 389 
(a) Human Wealth: Boatmen on the Victoria Nyanza; (b) The 
Passing of the Darkness: Dawn on Lake Nyasa; (c) Unworked 
Potentialities : Water Power on the Zambezi River 


LIST OF MAPS 


Itinerary of the two African Education Commissions (West Africa, 


Hast and GentraleA rica em ae mere | ee Sees ce are ete Facing title page 
PSUS A meester ie Non Sha EK: ac ORT tees Creat ane elated its Giale’ 'S the hy ete a patave 104 
RP ATICL AMER, exe wage Re ue Ue ae aR A Gals oo Meh RE PID era ne Male wind Gee mate leas 144 
A RESTEEE NAS 6 | SEA AS A va iar IP ier Pe PU Fu Roa erg 170 
PNAS Lt Cat UR aye Re ale in eae F ahaa A Mata fo Mads “area eS Paata 5 euaks gSer ns eae re ae 194 
NOT Merrie SOULDCED SLUNG esianrs tp Wan ieu te: Ghats, kaise 4,0 td's Sena ieee oe aia ertates 232 
Beentana And. Dasiloland ands waztlanGe- Ge esses sae & eeteceee oe eG antes 269 
ESTA RVESGVESS Sal DENS Whe Wiig CEE i / Mas Ry ps aH es AN Pee Pein a at WR 298 
PLAY SST tac barvic te cseustseae te een cteeete aig: We gand cases Mies om epee santne ageie SiGe. PP aeRO: 318 


FIGURES SHOWING LAND CLASSIFICATION 


Abyssinia (Ethiopia), 383; Kenya, 386; Uganda, 388; Tanganyika, 390; Nyasa- 
land, 393; Portuguese Kast Africa, 394; Northern Rhodesia, 395 ; Southern 
Rhodesia, 396; Bechuanaland, 397 





INTRODUCTION 
THE Purpose or THE REpoRT 


HE purpose of the Report submitted in this book is to present the conditions of 

Native education in East Africa, with suggestions for their improvement. 
Those responsible for appointing the Educational Commission to East Africa have 
had two ultimate objectives in mind: To help the Natives in the various countries 
and Colonies visited through encouraging more and better education of the right type, 
and, as a result, to promote, directly and indirectly, friendly interracial relations. 
The immediate educational objective was more formally expressed and analyzed 


in the following statement of purposes prepared when the Educational Commission 
was originally announced : 


1. To inquire as to the educational work being done at present in each of the areas 
to be studied. 

2. To investigate the educational needs of the people in the light of the religious, 
social, hygienic and economic conditions. 

3. To ascertain to what extent these needs are being met. 

4. To assist in the formulation of plans designed to meet the educational needs 
of the Native races. 

5. To make available the full results of this study. 


The Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund firmly believe that the peace and welfare 
of the world can never be assured until conditions in every country, no matter how 
small or how remote from world centers of civilization, are reasonably satisfactory. 
In other words, just as a chain is as strong as its weakest link, so not even the dominant 
civilization in Europe and America can be counted upon to endure so long as people 
anywhere are weak as the result of ignorance or any other cause. Just as commerce 
knows no national boundaries, so epidemics, whether of disease or of Bolshevism, 
or of warfare between groups, quickly spread from country to country, and can only 
be controlled by modern science and an enlightened public opinion. We cannot 
forget that the world war, which involved ultimately over a score of the leading nations, 
received the spark which kindled it at the little-known town of Sarajevo in the relatively 
out-of-the-way country of Serbia. So both altruism and self-interest combine in 
making it seem desirable that everything possible should be done to remove possible 
causes of serious friction or danger even in a continent so “‘ remote’ from the great 
- political capitals of the world as Africa. As long as any portion of it, or of any other 
continent, suffers because of disease or superstition or prejudice or ignorance, the ele- 
ments are at hand out of which a conflagration, which might later gain world propor- 
tions, may be fanned into a flame. The Educational Commission to East Africa, like 
its predecessor, the Educational Commission to West, South and Equatorial Africa, 
is therefore an attempt to make a definite, even though it may be a small contribution, 

xiil 


X1V INTRODUCTION 


to the strengthening of sound methods of education which should make for the 
welfare of the Native races and the peace of the world. 


SomE FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS 


It is now very generally recognized that, although the tendency of civilization is to 
continue in well-worn grooves, its direction can be somewhat altered and its progress 
accelerated through conscious direction by various agencies. Of these, probably 
the most important are statesmanship, commerce, religion and education. Science 
based on the most exact research should also be included separately in any strict 
analysis, but for our purposes tt may be considered under education, although it is 
closely related to all the agencies named. Education must teach it and develop it : 
Commerce must make use of it: Government must apply it in meeting its problems, 
especially those connected with the public health : while Religion, although affirming 
more than Science can prove, must teach nothing inconsistent with its established 
laws. Civilization progresses in so far as these four factors unite, unselfishly and 
with broad outlook, to improve the personal and social conditions affecting human 
life. Let us refer to each briefly. 

The real statesman no longer considers it his main object to advance the personal 
interests of his monarch or of the dynasty, but to advance the welfare of the State 
and its friendly relations to other States. In this matter there has been marvellous 
progress in Africa, as elsewhere, and it would be hard to find in the world a more 
unselfish and able group of public servants than those who have been charged with 
the administration and development of most of the African Colonies. The British 
Government has been particularly favored in this regard. 

In commerce there has been a less marked but none the less encouraging change 
in-attitude. Both in number and in relative proportion, the large corporations 
and firms conducting their affairs with due regard to the best interests of the African 
Native have very greatly increased during the past generation. The changed 
attitude of those interested in the commercial development of the Belgian Congo 
is a striking example of this point, as is also the remarkable success of the company in 
Nyasaland. Men of business are increasingly seeing that in the long run self-interest, 
to say nothing of the precepts of the Golden Rule, demand the fair treatment of labor 
rather than its exploitation. There are still labor conditions in certain parts of 
Africa, especially in the Portuguese Colonies, that deserve more serious attention 
of Governments than they have received, but there has been marked progress almost 
everywhere during the past decade. This is highly important, as the European 
trader, both through his business dealings and through his manner of life, is a factor 
of prime importance in setting standards of conduct which an imitative Native is sure 
to follow. To take a concrete instance : It is extremely embarrassing to missionaries 
who are unselfishly trying to present the gospel of goodwill and temperance when 
merchants from their own country living in the Colony are not observing these 
Christian precepts. On the other hand, there have been few more powerful factors 
for improving conditions in African Colonies than the conduct of certain large business 


INTRODUCTION XV 


corporations, which have shown a friendly interest in the mental, moral, physical, 
social and economic welfare of their employees, and are opposed to all forms of 
exploitation. But, unfortunately, such cases are still rare. 

Religion is the third great factor in the development of civilization. The modern 
Christian missionary has been in Africa, as elsewhere, the advance agent of civilization. 
The work of Livingstone, Mackay, Laws and scores of others has contributed as surely 
to the future civilization of Africa and to the peace of the world as that of any group 
of men who have lived. The Churches, representing all shades of thought, have made 
most important contributions. It is a revelation to one who has not visited Africa 
or studied conditions carefully to see what the introduction of religion has done in a 
country like Uganda, where the masses of the Natives in large sections have become 
Christianized during the past generation. To believe in one God who is a Benevo- 
lent and Eternal Spirit, instead of many gods of wood and stone; to believe in and 
practise monogamy instead of polygamy ; to follow the spiritual and ethical teachings 
of Jesus of Nazareth instead of the quackery of some witch-doctor : these represent 
changes of inestimable value. Where religion is preached in its simplicity and purity, 
and the vital relation between faith in God and a clean life of simple service and good 
will are recognized, the improvement in social conditions is everywhere marked. 

For the development of such religion, as indeed for all spiritual and moral training, 
the significance of the home must not be overlooked. In the give and take of family 
life, wisely guided by Christian parents, the Church finds its strongest ally. Here 
religion may be made effective in the affairs of everyday life and the impressionable 
character of the child profoundly influenced for good. 

The fourth of the great factors which control the destiny of humanity is education. 
As this is so important and forms the basis of this Report, it will be treated in a separate 
section. 


THE TRUE CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION 


The Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the members of the Educational 
Commission to East Africa are all profound believers in the power of education as 
a factor in civilization. They are optimists, as they realize the latent power of 
humanity for development, when wisely guided. They believe that there is no boy or 
girl in the world who cannot be helped to a higher, better and more useful life through 
the right kind of education. Unfortunately, in the past, in Africa as in Europe and 
in America, the type of education provided has not generally been the type best 
fitted for the masses of the people. In the Middle Ages anything which deserves to 
be called education, aside from the simplest religious instruction, was practically 

confined to those who were to be the leaders of Church and State, and it was fairly 
well adapted to its purpose under the conditions then existing. With the spread of 
democracy the whole system of education was extended so that all members of the 
community secured practically the same type of education as had been designed 
for the leaders of a previous generation. This was unfortunate; for whereas the 
principle of education is universally applicable, the type of education must vary with 


Xvi INTRODUCTION 


the stage of a people’s civilization and, as far as practicable, with the requirements 
of the individual student. 

High-minded men who have criticized the policy of educating the Native races 
have done so, it is believed, in almost all cases, because they have had a narrow and 
rigid conception of education. It has seemed to them foolish to give the African 
the classical training of Europe, as being, except in rare cases, in no way suited to 
his needs. These critics have been entirely right in their specific objections to the 
type of education too often provided ; but they have been wrong in assuming that 
education was necessarily restricted to the formal type most prevalent in Europe and 
America in the past. 

Those who are responsible for this Report, as its readers will notice, believe pro- 
foundly in the power of education to mold the minds, characters and habits of youth, 
but they are convinced that it must be a vital education fitted to the needs of those 
who seek it, so as to make them useful members in their own community life. 

The old conception of education held by our fathers was mainly that of trans- 
mitting the cultural knowledge of the past, thereby supplying information which 
would give the recipient a cultivated mind. Education was primarily informational 
and mentally disciplinary. The teacher was expected to stand up before the class 
and convey to its members certain knowledge which was supposed to have an intel- 
lectual value. There was little or no attempt to choose subjects of study that would 
be of actual service in meeting the needs of the individual or the problems of home and 
community life. Nor were the methods of instruction or the character of school 
life generally such as to develop character or to enlist the service of what was learned 
in the classroom in the formation of habits and attitudes of social value. 

Now it is seen that whereas the old conception of the educational process had and 
still has its values, it tended to become narrow and one-sided, and needed to be supple- 
mented. We now see that education involves not only or mainly formal instruction, 
but the development of all the physical, mental, moral and spiritual powers of youth 
in the interest of service. Herbert Spencer puts this well when he says that the object 
of education is “ to prepare us for complete living.” Montaigne had the same ideal. 
He said: “ Tis not a soul; ’tis not a body, that we are training up, but a man, and 
we ought not to divide him.” But he was about three centuries ahead of his time. 

In other words, the modern conception of education is that of guiding and training 
natural individual growth rather than of giving formal instruction. I call it modern, 
and yet philosophers and seers have seen its truth for thousands of years. We find 
it in the Old Testament in the Book of Proverbs in the well-known words: “ Train 
up a child in the way it should go, and when it is old it will not depart from it.” 
Now, if this broad and vital conception is once grasped, can anyone deny for a moment 
that the type of education for which these definitions stand is one needed by every 
child of every race, no matter how backward, in the whole world? Intelligent 
people are increasingly convinced that ignorance is a cure for nothing, and promotes 
all sorts of ills in individual lives and in the body politic. The wrong type of education 
is almost equally dangerous. But the right type soundly based on the theory of 


INTRODUCTION XV1l 


99 


‘“‘ educational adaptations, 
can do only good. 
Probably the most important single task of the Commission to East Africa was 
to try to find the types of education best fitted to meet the twofold needs of the 
Negro masses and of the Negro leaders of Africa in the near future. In general, the 
members of the Commission are convinced that all education must be of a character 
to draw out the powers of the Native African and to fit him to meet the specific 
problems and needs of his individual and community life. In this connection, they 
have been profoundly impressed by the ideals of education developed by General 
Armstrong at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, immediately after the Civil War. 
He saw that book learning of the old type was entirely inadequate : that the plow, 
the anvil, the hammer, the broom, the frying pan and the needle must all be used to 
supplement the customary instruction. In other words, that education must be 
vitally related to the needs of the people as they took up their work as freemen on 
the plantations and in the towns of the South. He saw that the training in agri- 
culture, in industry and in home economics could not only be made to subserve a 
useful end, but that the processes used in acquiring skill as a farmer, as a mechanic, 
or as a cook—to use a few specific illustrations—have large educational value, both 
mental and moral. Armstrong’s theories of education have been developed at 
Hampton, Tuskegee and scores of other institutions in America, and are beginning 
to take firm root in Africa. They have developed two of the most remarkable Negro 
leaders of modern times—Booker T. Washington and Robert R. Moton—and they 
have profoundly influenced J. E. K. Aggrey and other Africans who are introducing 
,the same principles among the Natives of their own lands. In this education, 
character development, health and hygiene, agriculture and gardening, industrial 
skill, knowledge of home economics and wholesale recreation are among the most 
important objectives, along with the old training in the fundamentals of reading, 
writing and arithmetic—the three R’s, which can never be superseded in elementary 
education. But of all these objectives, character training is the most important. 
Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold 
Coast Colony, who is responsible for the development of the Native University 
College at Achimota, recently emphasized this point in his Report for 1922-28. 
He said : 


so eloquently advocated by Dr. Jones in this Report, 


I said just now that the most important requisite of our educational system is CHARACTER 
TRAINING. WHAT IS CHARACTER TRAINING ? I confess that I have often been baffled in the attempt 
to define the nebulous curriculum of such a subject, but Dr. Jesse Jones hits the nail on the head. 
What he practically says is that THERE IS NO DEFINITE SYLLABUS, BUT WHATEVER SYSTEM WE ADOPT, 
AND IN EVERY SYSTEM WE ADOPT, WHETHER IN INFANT SCHOOLS, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, TRADE SCHOOLS 
OR SECONDARY SCHOOLS, WE MUST ENDEAVOUR TO GRAFT THE SIMPLE VIRTUES ON OUR CHILDREN, 
THESE SIMPLE VIRTUES ARE PERSEVERANCE, THRIFT, TEMPERANCE, SELF-CONTROL, RELIABILITY, 
HONESTY AND RESPECT FOR PARENTS. As Dr, Jesse Jones says, these virtues cannot be taught out 
of books; they must develop by sound habits resulting from days, weeks and months of actual 
practice and repetition.* 


* Capitals as in the original. 


XViil INTRODUCTION 


Furthermore, the whole process of education at schools which emphasize these 
ideals is socialized from the very start in that children are made to feel that they are 
part and parcel of a community for whose standards and ideals they are largely 
responsible, and that in this respect a school is to be considered as a training ground 
for the larger work of life. 

The Commission to East Africa is enthusiastic in supporting this type of education 
for the masses, although recognizing that there must be provided also a training for 
the leaders which would include the historical, physical and social sciences, and the 
other disciplines which white civilization has found valuable. In fact, it should be 
self-evident that there is, and will be increasingly, need for highly trained Native 
leaders in religion, in education, in engineering, in medicine and in all the professions. 
The time has passed when the civilized world can say to any people, “ Thus far and 
no further,” where education is concerned. The doors of the great universities of 
Europe and America must be kept open to the rare Native of any nation who is 
qualified to enter and to profit by the instruction. It is clear, however, that the 
majority of the Native leaders can be better trained in Africa, where they become 
accustomed to the conditions with which they will have to cope in after life. The 
movement so auspiciously started at Fort Hare College in South Africa, and at 
Achimota in the Gold Coast, must be reproduced in ai least one center in East Africa, 
as recommended in the following Report, so that there will be some institution of 
higher education, well equipped and with high ideals, within a reasonable distance 
of every African’Native qualified to meet its standards and to profit by its teachings. 
Experience with Negro colleges in the United States has shown, however, that it is 
far better to have a few institutions of this character of high grade, and to give them 
adequate support, than to encourage a large number of weak, competing institutions. 
They must also have the same emphasis on vital preparation for life’s duties and needs 
that should be characteristic of the elementary schools and of the intermediate or 
high schools that will supply the majority of Native teachers. In all of them the 
laboratory method which modern science has introduced must be emphasized, so 
that theory and practice, knowledge acquired from study and from observation, can 
be combined in an atmosphere charged with idealism and with a fine passion for 
community service. 


ORIGIN OF THE COMMISSION TO EAST AFRICA 


The Commission to East Africa was authorized by the Trustees of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund at their meeting, November 21, 1923, when the following vote was 
passed : 

That the appropriation of $6,500 for the East African survey be authorized under the following 
conditions : 


1. That Dr. Jones’s absence from America would be for a period not exceeding eight months, 
from the latter part of December to the latter part of August. 

2. That the British Colonial Office meet the salary and expenses as a member of the Commission 
of whoever becomes the Secretary of the Imperial Advisory Committee on African Education. 


INTRODUCTION xix 


{It was later decided that the Secretary should travel with the Commission without being formally 
considered a member of it.] 


3. That the Church Missionary Society meet the salary of its Educational Secretary, the Rev. 
Dr, Garfield Williams, as a member of the Commission and ali of his traveling expenses while he is 
in Africa, except for a sum not to exceed $500 to be appropriated for his traveling expenses while 
he is in the Colonies or Dependencies not included in the Society’s field of activities. 


4, That an earnest effort will be made by Mr. Oldham and others interested to secure the salary 
and expenses of a Secretary for the Commission. 


The conditions mentioned were all most generously met by the British Colonial 
Office, the Church Missionary Society and others interested. The expenses have 
somewhat exceeded what was anticipated, and Dr. Jones has been abroad over a year 
rather than eight months, but the changes have been in the interest of the Com- 
mission’s Report. 

Although the action taken was the formal authorization of the Commission, 
it goes back to certain previous acts of importance which can only be understood 
if four other preceding factors are borne in mind: 


(1) The Phelps-Stokes Trustees, in cooperation with various Governments and 
missionary societies, sent a Commission to Africa in 1920-21. The Commission’s 
findings were published in a volume entitled Education in Africa: A Study of West, 
South and Equatorial Africa, by the African Education Commission. In my Intro- 
duction to this volume, I stated: ‘‘ The Trustees especially regretted that time and 
means were not available to include the East Coast in their survey.” The Trustees 
have, therefore, had in mind for some time the supplementing of the first study 
by one dealing with the principal countries and colonies on the East Coast. 

(2) Conferences in England. When in England in the spring and summer of 
1923, Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, Educational Director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, 
and I had many conferences with Mr. Oldham, the Secretary of the International 
Missionary Council ; Sir Frederick Lugard, of the Colonial Office Advisory Committee 
on Native Education in Tropical Africa; Major Ormsby-Gore, Under Secretary of 
State for the Colonies ; the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, as a result of which 
it developed that the Colonial Office and the British Missionary Societies would like 
to have a survey of East Africa by a Commission under the auspices of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund, similar to the survey already made of West, South and Equatorial 
Africa. The serious situation in Kenya and the desire of all the responsible officials 
concerned to meet it in the wisest and most constructive way was specially emphasized 
as making an early report desirable. On July 25th, 1923, following these conferences, 
the following statement was made in Parliament by Major Ormsby-Gore : 

I have to announce that recently we have had an important conference at the Colonial Office 
consisting of the African Governors and Colonial Secretaries home on leave, and there have been a 
good many, together with our educational advisers, as to the future of Native education in Africa. 
We want to avoid making mistakes at this critical stage. We want to explore the experience of 
the work as to what is the best and most helpful form and type of education that we can give to 


the Africans for the purpose of giving light to New Africa. With that view we have formed a 
Permanent Committee, and 1 hope shortly to get a permanent Secretary to advise on this issue, 


KK INTRODUCTION 


We were led to this largely as the result of a most extraordinarily interesting report issued by Dr. 
Jesse Jones, who has travelled, not only through the British Colonies, but through French Africa 
and the Belgian Congo and the Portuguese Colonies. He has made a most helpful contribution to 
the subject of African education from the point of view of the Native. It is hoped that Dr. Jones 
may pay a similar visit to the East African Colonies. This Committee consists of Sir Frederick 
Lugard ; Mr. Oldham, who practically represents all the Protestant Missionary Societies ; Sir Michael 
Sadler, who has a great knowledge of Indian education; the Bishop of Edmundsbury [now 
Bishop of Liverpool], who was formerly Headmaster of Rugby, and Sir James Currie, Director of 
the Gordon College at Khartoum, who has had experience in the Sudan, and at present is doing 
such valuable work in connection with the Empire Cotton Growing Movement. He knows that 
side as well as the education side. We hope that the Committee will be able to contribute very 
materially to the progress of the new educational movement taking place in Africa.—[Hansard’s 
Debates, Vol. 167, No. 104.] 


(3) The visits of African educators to this country which the Phelps-Stokes Fund, 
in cooperation with Governments and missionary societies, had helped to render 
possible, made the importance of the proposed Commission more and more evident. 
These British visitors were convinced that the American experience in dealing with 
the African Negro was particularly valuable, and that if a suitable Commission repre- 
senting Great Britain, the United States and Africa, could be created and financed, 
it could render East Africa a very important service. Archdeacon Owen, of Kenya 
Colony, who was one of the African educators brought by the Phelps-Stokes Fund 
to America, was among those who held this conviction strongly. 

The three factors stated, together with the remarkable success of the Educational 
Commission to Chinain 1921—22, which was made up of British, American and Chinese 
members, under the chairmanship of Dean (now President) Burton, of the University 
of Chicago, and the extremely favorable reception of the Report of the first Educa- 
tional Commission to Africa prepared by Dr. Jones, convinced the officers of the 
Fund that a similar service should be attempted for East Africa. This was clearly 
within the Fund’s possibilities, in that by the will of Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes, 
who established the Fund, its purposes included: “‘ The education of Negroes 
both in Africa and the United States,’ and the Act of Incorporation of the Phelps- 
Stokes Trustees by the New York State Legislature authorized the ‘* said corporation 
to use any means to such ends which from time to time seem expedient to its members 
or Trustees, including research, publication, the establishment and maintenance of 
charitable or benevolent activities,’ etc., ete. 


PERSONNEL OF THE COMMISSION 


The personnel of the Commission was made up as follows : 


- Tuomas JEssE Jones, Ph.D., Chairman, Educational Director of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund, and Chairman of the Commission of 1920—21 to West, South and 
Equatorial Africa. 

James Emman Kwecyir Accrey, M.A., a Native of the Gold Coast and member 
of the Commission of 1920—21 ; formerly a Professor at Livingstone College, Salisbury, 
NiGs7U.S-A. 


INTRODUCTION xxi 


James Harpy Diiarp, LL.D., President of the Jeanes and Slater Funds and 
member of the General Education Board. 

Homer Leroy SHantz, Ph.D., Agriculturalist and Botanist of the United States 
Department of Agriculture. He traveled from Cape to Cairo in 1919-21, and made 
observations of the soil and animal life, which were published in a notable volume 
and in maps. 

The Rev. GARFIELD WiuuiAMs, O.B.E., M.B., B.S., Educational Secretary of the 
Church Missionary Society. 

Masor Hanns Viscuer, C.B.E., M.A., F.R.G.S., Secretary and member of the 
British Advisory Committee on Native Education in Tropical Africa, formerly 
Director of Education in Northern Nigeria, also worked with the Commission 
throughout. Mrs. Vischer accompanied the Commission for part of the journey. 

C. T. Loram, B.A., LL.B., the leading authority on Native education and a 
member of the Native Affairs Commission in South Africa, who was a member of the 
previous Commission, joined members of the present Commission for their survey 
of Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia. The South African Government generously 
made this possible. 

James W. C. Dovcatn, M.A., of Scotland, and for part of the time GEORGE 
B. Dituarp, B.A., of the United States, acted as Secretaries to the Commission. 

It will be noticed that the Commission was international, interdenominational 
and interracial. It included British and American citizens, and a Native African, 
and members of various Christian communions. In general, it may be said the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund met the salary and expenses of Dr. Jones and Dr. Aggrey, 
the British Government the salary and expenses of Major Vischer, the American 
Government the salary of Dr. Shantz, while his traveling expenses were met by the 
International Education Board (Rockefeller). The Church Missionary Society 
met the expenses of Dr. Garfield Williams, and Dr. Dillard’s expenses were provided 
by the International Education Board. Mr. Dougall undertook his own expenses 
throughout the tour. The Phelps-Stokes Trustees greatly appreciate the generous 
cooperation of the various Government and agencies mentioned. This was essential 
to the success of the Commission. 


PREPARATION OF THE REPORT 


Having completed their work in Africa, the Commission dispersed to three con- 
tinents, Dr. Aggrey sailing for West Africa, Dr. Shantz and Dr. Dillard returning to 
America, Major Hanns Vischer resuming his work at the Colonial Office in London, 

‘in which city Dr. Garfield Williams also took up new and absorbing work. The 
Commission as a unit ceased to exist. Even the Secretary, Mr. J. W. C. Dougall, 
went to America to prepare for further educational work in East Africa. The 
actual production of the Report devolved mainly upon the Chairman, who remained 
in London for several months to concentrate upon it. To him the contributions of 
members of the Commission were sent, and from him the chapters went out to them 
for revision before publication. 


Xxil INTRODUCTION 


(a) Mason ViscHeR assembled valuable material on the Native people, the 
Government and the educational situation in the British Colonies visited, and also 
made the resources of the Colonial Office Library available for the purposes of the 
Report. Mrs. Vischer collected evidence on the education of women in Kenya, 
Uganda and Tanganyika. 

Dr. GarFreLD WI1IAMs, in like manner, contributed descriptive material on 
mission schools in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, and illuminating interpretations 
of educational policy. 

(0) Dr. C. T. Loram, both during the visit of the Commission and subsequently, 
rendered invaluable service in collecting information as to educational conditions, 
and contributed his unique knowledge and experience to the preparation of the 
Report. 

(c) Dr. Homer L. Suantz, who traveled the whole way as a member of the 
Commission, has embodied the results of his study as an agricultural expert in an 
important chapter which appears under his own name. He has also placed at the 
disposal of the Commission a large number of beautiful photographs, many of which 
are reproduced in the Report. 


THE COMMISSION’S ITINERARY 


After a short preliminary visit to England on the part of the American members— 
Messrs. Jones, Dillard and Shantz—and Dr. Aggrey, the African member, the Com- 
mission left London on January 15th, 1924, sailing from Marseilles on Thursday, 
January 17th. Their itinerary is given herewith : 


January 29 to February 1—French Somaliland 
Landing at Djibouti, the Commission traveled by rail to Abyssinia. 


February 1 to 6—Abyssinia 
The Commission stayed in and around the capital, Addis Ababa, paying visits to the Government 
School, to French and Swedish Mission Schools and to the American Medical Mission. 


February 12 to 18 
Voyage from Djibouti to Mombasa. 


February 18 to March 9—Kenya Colony 

Some or all of the members of the Commission visited various educational institutions in the 
Colony, traveling about 600 miles by train, with additional journeys by car. On February 22nd 
the Commission arrived at Nairobi, their headquarters for the district, where meetings and con- 
ferences with representatives of Government, settlers and Natives were held. On March 8rd the 
Commission removed its headquarters to Maseno. Government Schools and workshops were 
visited on the Coast, at Nairobi, Machakos and Kisumu, and a large number of Protestant and 
Roman Catholic Mission Schools. 


March 19 to 23—Uganda Protectorate 

With headquarters at Kampala, the Commission visited the Government School at Makerere, 
and the schools of the Church Missionary Society, the Mill Hill Fathers and the White Fathers. 
Meetings were held with Native Chiefs. 


INTRODUCTION XXxlil 


March 24 to 28—Ienya Colony 

The Commission returned to the coast by train, stopping for further conferences with missionary 
representatives at Kijabe and with government officers at Nairobi. 

Dr. Dillard and his son left for South Africa, where they visited several important educational 
centers, 


March 30 to April 12—Tanganyika Territory 

Messrs. Jones, Aggrey, Garfield Williams and Dougall, accompanied by Mr, S. Rivers-Smith, 
Director of Education, and by the Bishop of Mombasa, traveled by train inland as far as Tabora, 
visiting Government Schools at Dar-es-Salaam, Dodoma, Tabora, Kilossa and Morogoro, and also 
numerous schools of the Church Missionary Society and the Roman Catholic Missions. 

Dr. Shantz and Major and Mrs. Vischer traveled by rail from Nairobi to Tanga and by boat to 
Mombasa, visiting various schools. 4 


April 12 to 15—Zanzibar 

The Commission toured the Island under the guidance of government officers, visited schools 
of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, and had an audience with the Sultan of Zanzibar. 

At this point Dr. Garfield Williams returned to Kenya and Uganda for some weeks of careful 
study. Major and Mrs. Vischer returned to Tanganyika. 


April 19 to 21—Portuguese East Africa 
Messrs. Jones, Shantz, Aggrey and Dougall sailed to Beira, where they were joined by Dr. 
Loram from South Africa. 


April 22 to May 15—Nyasaland 
The Commission traveled 550 miles by lake steamers and 400 miles by car, visiting schools of 
various missions. Major Vischer joined the party at Zomba. 


May 21 to 80—Portuguese East Africa 
Mr. Dougall traveled through Portuguese East Africa, accompanied by Dr. Lawrence and 
Mr. Alvord of the American Board of Missions. 


May 18 to June 7—Southern Rhodesia 
The Commission visited Mission and Government Schools and attended the General Missionary 
Conference in Salisbury, and the Conference of the Dutch Reformed Church at Morgenster., 


June 8 to 18—Northern Rhodesia 
Messrs. Jones, Vischer, Aggrey and Dougall attended the General Missionary Conference of 
Northern Rhodesia at Kafue, and met government officials at Livingstone. 


June 16 to 27—Union of South Africa 

Members of the Commission met missionary representatives and citizens at Johannesburg and 
attended the General Missionary Conference at Durban. On June 20th Messrs. Aggrey and Dougall 
sailed from Durban for England, and on June 27th Messrs. Shantz and Vischer sailed from Cape 
Town. 


‘June 30 to July 15—Portuguese East Africa 
Dr. Jones and Dr. and Mrs, Loram traveled in Portuguese East Africa, having their headquarters 
at Lourenco Marques, 


July 15 to July 25—Union of South Africa 
Dr. Jones and Dr. Loram returned to South Africa, where they traveled extensively, visiting 
schools and conferring with government officials, important organizations and influential citizens. 
On August 8th, Dr. Jones sailed from Cape Town for England, 


XXiVv INTRODUCTION 


It is to be regretted that the Commission was unable to visit the Belgian Mandated 
Territory of Ruanda and Urundi, though notes on the situation there are embodied 
in the Report, and British and Italian Somaliland. The Phelps-Stokes Fund would 
have been particularly glad if Italian Somaliland could have been included, as then 
the African Colonies of all the European Powers—Great Britain, France, Italy, 
Belgium and Portugal—as well as the territories originally colonized by Holland 
and Germany would have been visited, except for Spain’s small possessions on the 
north west. It may be stated in general that the two Commissions under the 
auspices of the Phelps-Stokes Fund have visited all sections of Africa, except the 
northern area bordering the Mediterranean, the Sahara and the districts to the east 
and west of the Desert. All of this northern portion which has not been included 
in the two Reports has distinctive problems of its own, due primarily to the fact 
that the dominant influence is Mohammedan ; while in all of the central and southern 
sections, wherever the Native religions have been superseded, the dominant influences 
are Christian. It will be noticed that the portion of Africa covered by the visits of 
the two Educational Commissions includes, roughly speaking, all Africa south of 
10° north latitude. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


A Report of the character herewith submitted can only be prepared with the 
cooperation of many organizations and individuals. The Phelps-Stokes Fund is 
particularly indebted to the Colonial Office of Great Britain, the Department of 
Agriculture of Washington, the International Education Board of New York, and 
to the Governments of the various British and Portuguese Colonies and Dominions 
for help of many kinds. In most of the Colonies transportation facilities were 
provided by the Government. The British Colonial Office has also been most generous 
and cooperative in supplying the facts and figures necessary for the various colonial 
surveys. 

There are also certain individuals whom it is my pleasure to mention with special 
gratitude. Above all, the thanks of the Phelps-Stokes Fund are due to Dr. Thomas 
Jesse Jones, the Chairman of the Commission, who is more responsible than any one 
else for the success of the Commission and for its Report. His tact, his philosophy 
of education and of its adaptations to people in various stages of civilization, his 
Christian sympathies, and his experience in educational surveys have all qualified 
him for leadership in this work. It is interesting to note that Dr. Jones was by birth 
a Welshman, by education and citizenship an American, and by interest as much an 
African as any non-African could conceivably be. It is a special pleasure to note 
that the collaboration of Mrs. Jones, during the strenuous months of work in London, 
has meant much to her husband and to the Report. Every member of the Com- 
mission has cooperated most fully and heartily both in the work on the field and in 
the preparation of the Report. It embodies substantially the thought of the whole 
Commission and is their common gift to Africa. 


; INTRODUCTION XXV 


It is impossible to express adequately the sense of obligation of the Phelps-Stokes 
Fund and of the Commission to the various interests which center in Edinburgh 
House, which has been the headquarters of the Commission in London. The Con- 
ference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain and Ireland generously contributed 
the offices and clerical assistance required during the months when the Report was 
being prepared for the press. Mr. Oldham, Secretary of the International Missionary 
Council ; Mr. Maciennan, Secretary of the Conference of Missionary Societies in Great 
Britain and Ireland ; and Miss Gollock, Joint Editor of the International Review of 
Missions, have given of their time and their thought most generously at various 
stages of the Commission’s work. Miss Gollock has been Dr. Jones’s principal col- 
laborator in editing and illustrating the Report and in seeing it through the press. 
Mention should also be made of Miss Naylor’s loyal and capable service in the office, 
of the help rendered by Miss Haworth in the preparation of the Index and the 
Bibliography, and of the expert aid given by Mr. David Chamberlin in connec- 
tion with the maps and illustrations. Mr. Rivers-Smith and Mr, Macgregor Ross 
also used their knowledge of East Africa to further the preparation of the 
Report, so did Mr. Rey, the author of Unconquered Abyssinia. 

It is impossible to acknowledge by name the numerous donors of the photo- 
graphs which have enriched the pages of the Report. Special recognition is due 
to Messrs. W. H. Smith & Son, whose expert staff have spared no pains in their 
successful work upon the printing and illustrating of the volume. 

It is possible to name here only a small proportion of the organizations and 
individuals in Africa—government officers, missionaries, settlers and merchants, 
and Africans—to whom thanks are due. The following references indicate the extent 
of generosity and courtesy shown to the Commissioners, as they have been reported 
by the Chairman of the Commission : 

Governments.—The governing officers of every country visited showed every 
possible courtesy and provided substantial assistance in traveling by trains, boats 
and motors. Special mention must be made of His Highness Ras Tafari, and of 
the late Sir Robert Coryndon, Governor of Kenya, whose sudden decease is a serious 
loss to all East African and colonial service. The Commission desire to express 
deep gratitude to the Governors and Colonial Secretaries for their interpretation 
both of the essentials of colonial welfare and the principles of trusteeship for the 
Native people. 

General Herzog, the Prime Minister of South Africa, and General Smuts, who 
retired from office during the Commission’s visit, were genuinely sympathetic and 
cooperative to the Commission in their interest in Native affairs. The Portuguese 
Governors and their officers opened every door and materially facilitated the travels 
of the party. 

The British Colonial Governments generously supplied practically all transporta- 
tion required in their colonies. The Directors of Education placed their Depart- 
ments at the service of the Commission. Other Departments also assisted, especially 
those of Agriculture and Public Health. 


XXVi INTRODUCTION 


Missions.—Missionaries of Protestant and Roman Catholic Societies, European 
and American, provided every form of hospitality and assistance. 

In Abyssinia, Dr. Lambie, of the United Presbyterian Mission, and his colleagues 
gave hospitality to several members of the Commission. 

In Kenya, Dr. J. A. Arthur, of the Scottish Mission, made many of the preliminary 
arrangements through Dr. H. R. A. Philp and Miss Stevenson. The Bishop of 
Mombasa, Archdeacon Owen, Rev. F. H. Wright, Rev. J. Britton, Rev. Canon St. 
A. Rogers, Rev. Canon S. Leakey, and the Rev. and Mrs. Handley Hooper rendered 
service in connection with the Church Missionary Society. The American Missions 
and the Africa Inland Mission were very helpful in many ways. 

In Uganda, Bishop Willis and his associates provided substantially both of 
hospitality and traveling facilities. The Roman Catholic Missions likewise 
cooperated in the inquiries of the Commission. 

In Tanganyika, the contacts with missions were comparatively few, but appre- 
ciation is due to the Universities’ Mission, the Lutherans and the Roman 
Catholics, and especially to those of the Church Missionary Society who provided 
hospitality. 

In Zanzibar, Chancellor Spanton and his associates of the Universities’ Mission 
were very kind. 

In Nyasaland, Dr. Hetherwick, of the Church of Scotland, took the responsibility 
for all the preliminary arrangements. Dr. Laws and his staff at Livingstonia were 
most generous in their welcome and hospitality. Bishop Fisher and the Fathers 
and Sisters of the Universities’ Mission at Likoma received the Commission into 
the life of that interesting station and placed their comfortable lake steamer at the 
Commission’s command. The Dutch Reformed Missions arranged all conveniences 
of travel to their stations and provided the comforts of home for the travelers. 

In Southern Rhodesia, the members of the Commission enjoyed the hospitality 
of many missions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, notably the American 
Methodists, American Congregationists, the Wesleyans, and the Dutch Reformed 
Mission at Morgenster. Special mention should be made of Dr, Lawrence and 
Mr. Alvord, who accompanied Mr. Dougall from Beira in Portuguese East Africa by 
overland route to Mount Silinda in Southern Rhodesia. 

In Northern Rhodesia, Mr. and Mrs. Fell, of the Primitive Methodist Mission 
at Kafue, arranged generous hospitality both for the Commission and for the Con- 
ference of Missionary Societies held during their visit. 

In Portuguese East Africa, M. Loze, of the Swiss Mission, was most helpful in all 
arrangements for the Commission. The other members of the Mission were also 
generous in their service, especially the Mission physician, whose skill cured one 
member of the Commission of an African fever that threatened serious difficulties. 
The American Methodist Mission rendered valuable service through Dr. Terril, 
who guided members of the Commission through parts of Portuguese East Africa 
and arranged hospitality both from that Mission and others on the route. 

In South Africa, hospitality was provided by the American Congregational 


INTRODUCTION XXVii 


Missions in Natal, the Dutch Reformed Church in many places, Dr. Henderson at 
Lovedale, the Bremen Mission, and the Swiss Mission in the Transvaal. 

Economie Growps.—Settlers and merchants cooperated helpfully wherever there 
was an opportunity. In Abyssinia, Colonel and Mrs. Sandford shared with the 
United Presbyterian Mission the burden of hospitality for the Commissioners. Colonel 
Sandford deserves the gratitude of the Commission for his wise and extensive help 
in ascertaining and understanding facts concerning both the educational and general 
situation in Abyssinia. 

In Kenya, the Settlers’ Association were most cordial in their cooperation, Lord 
Delamere and Sir Northrup MacMillan arranged introductions of value. 

In Southern Rhodesia, members of the Commission were the guests of Mr. and 
Mrs. Collins for several days. Judge and Mrs. Russell, of Bulawayo, were also 
exceedingly kind. . 

In South Africa, members of the Commission enjoyed the hospitality, and profited 
by the help of, the Witwatersrand Council on Education through their Secretary, 
Mr. Reinallt Jones, and his wife. Acknowledgments are also due to the Rotarians 
of Johannesburg; Colonel and Mrs. Dick of Durban; Mr. and Mrs. Boemkhe and 
the Citizens’ Association of Oudtshoorn; Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm of Pietermaritzburg ; 
Dr. and Mrs. Loram in Rondebosch; representatives of philanthropic and religious 
organizations of Cape Town ; the University of Cape Town ; Dr. and Mrs. Du Plessis, 
and the University of Stellenbosch. 

Africans.—Everywhere the African people were exceedingly kind and enthu- 
siastic in their welcome and assistance. All members of the Commission—and 
especially Dr. Aggrey—are deeply grateful for direct and indirect help from the 
Natives, whether as individuals or through their organizations. The Kavirondo 
Native Welfare Association command the special appreciation of the Commission 
for the welcome given at their large and impressive meeting and for their generous 
hospitality. The Joint Native Councils of South Africa gave many encouraging 
evidences of their interest in the Commission. 


CONCLUSION 


In conclusion, let me say on behalf of the Phelps-Stokes Trustees that they 
have considered it a very great privilege to cooperate with Governments, Educational 
Foundations and Missionary Societies in making this Report possible. The Trustees 
are profound believers in the importance of the spirit of cooperation in the solution 
of all missionary, educational, interracial and international problems as believed in 
and practised by the members of the Commission, and as preached with special 
eloquence by its Chairman, Dr. Jones, and its Native African member, Dr. Aggrey. 
The type of cooperation to be desired is that already achieved in several Colonies 
through the appointment of an Advisory Committee on Native Education. Such a 
Committee, established in Kenya soon after the Commission’s visit, met for the first 
time on May 3st, 1924, at Nairobi, there being present the Colonial Secretary, the 
Director of Education, the Commissioner for Native Affairs, the Bishop of Mombasa, 


XXVIII INTRODUCTION 


representatives of the Scottish Mission, the Roman Catholic Missions, the Africa 
Inland Mission and the Friends’ African Mission, as well as representative citizens. 
This means that practically all interests are represented and that the fullest degree 
of cooperation is assured in planning a wise system of Native education for the 
Colony. 

The Trustees also believe that a great educational revival is about to take place 
in the interest of the Native Africans. They have not forgotten the thrill which 
went over the educational world in August, 1901, when the army transport Thomas 
sailed from the United States with 550 graduates of American colleges and normal 
schools to establish a public school system for the Natives of the Philippines— 
the first extensive educational system in which industrial training and physical 
development were made a daily part of the school routine. There is probably no 
chance for such a spectacular development in connection with Africa, but it is 
earnestly to be hoped that an increasingly large group of thoroughly well-trained 
educational leaders for government and mission schools will go to the African conti- 
nent in the near future. If they do, and if they meet their responsibilities in the 
same high-minded spirit that has been characteristic of most colonial administrators 
and missionaries in recent years, the results that can be achieved will almost surpass 
the imagination. This will be particularly true if, following the best precedents of 
the past, they bear in mind that their main object is to develop an indigenous educa- 
tional system which in a few decades should become largely self-sustaining and 
self-perpetuating, with a large degree of Native leadership. The right type of educa- 
tion is very closely akin to the right type of Christian nurture, and there seems to 
be no part of the world where teachers and missionaries, living in the spirit of Christ 
and proclaiming His simple Gospel by word, life and deed, can render a larger service 
for the spread of the Kingdom of God than in Africa. 


ANSON PHELPS STOKES, 
President of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. 


Phelps-Stokes Fund Office, 
101 Park Avenue, New York City. 


EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


i — ' 
Te ak “74 
re a. 
Late 


= 





EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


CHAPTER I] 


EAST AFRICA 


FRICA, the ‘“‘ Great Dark Continent,” the ‘‘ Continent of Great Misunderstand- 
jie is rapidly becoming the ‘“‘ Continent of Great Opportunities ” and the 
“ Continent of Great Responsibilities.” These four dramatic words—Darkness, 
Misunderstandings, Opportunities, Responsibilities—vividly suggest the evolution 
of Africa from the barbarism of primitive life to the perplexities and influences of 
civilized society and to a worthy rank among the continents of the earth. One 
may well wonder how far these words present the actual and potential evolution of 
Africa and Africans—the things which have happened in the Continent—and how 
much they reflect the varied and changing attitudes within the minds of those 
concerned with the Continent and its people. Doubtless there has been a twofold 
evolution, both objective and subjective. The great resources and the real awakenings 
in Africa are a guarantee of significant developments. The scientific and altruistic 
approach to the country and the people is dispelling the morbid charm of wild life, 
the haunting fear of disease, and revealing the normal Africa of economic wealth, 
beautiful scenery and human potentialities. As the scientific Steffanson discovered 
the friendly Arctics, so the scientific and missionary Livingstone years before foresaw 
the friendly Tropics. 

The facts assembled in 1921 by the Education Commission to West, South and 
Equatorial Africa are emphatically confirmed by the facts ascertained by the Educa- 
tion Commission to East, Central and South Africa in 1924. It is inevitable that the 
honest observer shall present Africa as a Continent of Great Opportunities and Greater 
Responsibilities. There is a substantial and scientific basis for such a faith in the 
facts stated by Dr. Shantz, a plant specialist of the United States Department of 
Agriculture and an extensive student of African soils. His chapter in this volume 
has startling estimates and forecasts such as these : 


The cultivated acreage of East Africa, exclusive of South Africa, could in time almost equal that 
of the United States of America, an area three and a half times the total surface of the United 
Kingdom and Ireland. 

East Africa north of the Transvaal contains 300,000 square miles of high plateaux locally known 
as ‘‘ white man’s country,” free of tropical heat and tropical diseases, and capable of producing 
the crops of the temperate zone. 


3 


4 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Far-reaching questions are raised by the economic and sociological bearing of such 
estimates. Who is ultimately to occupy East Africa? Will it be the story of the 
American Indians dwindling and withdrawing into the difficult places? Or will 
it be an adjustment of white and black for the mutual benefit of each ? What is 
the meaning of “ trusteeship ” and ‘‘ mandate ” in relation to the African millions ? 
These questions are not directly answered in this Report, but every chapter contri- 
butes facts and recommendations pointing towards the answers. The Economic and 
Sociological Background of Native Education in every territorial chapter states 
the case of the Natives under paragraphs on People and Country, and the case of 
those from other lands under European Influences. Efforts to develop and educate 
the Natives are described under Educational Activities. Each chapter ends with a 
Summary and Recommendations—an attempt to integrate for each area the possi- 
bilities of country, Native people and European influences, so that Africa and 
Africans, black and white, may realize their potentialities. 

But East Africa is not merely an aggregation of colonies and protectorates, with 
Ethiopian Abyssinia at the northern end and European South Africa at the south. 
There is a unity of geographic elements including highlands and lowlands, valleys and 
lakes, that sweep from Abyssinia to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Upper 
Congo on the West to the Indian Ocean on the East. The power of climate, the 
lure of resources, and the migrations of peoples are superior to the artificialities 
of political or economic expediency and compromise. These great natural forces 
and conditions will ultimately determine the place of populations and their political 
and social status. Happy then the statesmanship that discerns the realities and 
helps direct the tides into channels that make for permanency in human development. 


What are then the constituent elements of this eastern area of the African Conti- 
nent? It begins with South Africa, extending from ocean to ocean, till it reaches 
the Upper Congo where the Continent divides into east and west, and it follows the 
eastern highlands, ending in the great high plains of Abyssinia. The total area of 
this remarkable region is approximately 2,750,000 square miles, about three-quarters 
that of the United States of America. Its population is nearly 28,000,000 or about 
a fourth of that of the American States. Racially about 25,500,000 are Native 
Africans, largely of Bantu stock ; about 1,550,000 are of European ancestry ; 525,000 
Cape Colony Colored; and 250,000 Asiatics, largely along the East Coast with a 
marked concentration in Natal. 

These statistics present the human factors in the developments already begun 
and now about to enter upon a grander scale, with some parts of the world partici- 
pating and others anxiously watching whether the processes are to be those of 
conflict or cooperation. The million and a half Europeans are rulers, missionaries 
to the Natives, masters of industry, commerce and agriculture. The half-million 
Cape Colored and the quarter of a million Asiatics are economic helpers in trade and 
industry and sometimes in government. The, Native millions are the ruled, the 
exploited, the developed. Abyssinia is the only country under Native rule, but 


EAST AFRICA 5 


that in no important respect improves the position of the Native millions. The 
tendency to exploit and oppress is not a monopoly of Europeans. It is usually 
incidental to the control of one group by another, coupled with selfishness and an 
ignorance of good economics, good government and good sociology on the part of 
the controlling class, whether white or black. 


An understanding of the units of government control is peculiarly important in 
the study of East African probabilities, especially those of the more immediate future. 
The outstanding fact concerning government is the wide extent of British influence 
all the way from the Cape to Cairo. The elimination of the Germans from Tanganyika 
has left the British in control of all the areas except Abyssinia in the north, Portu- 
guese Africa in the south-east, and the Union of South Africa with dominion status 
within the British Commonwealth. Though Portuguese East Africa has 428,000 
square miles and about 3,000,000 Native people, the unfortunate condition of the 
colony and the lack of continuity and effectiveness in the colonial policy eliminates 
that large unit from any present direct influence in East African affairs. Abyssinia, 
officially known as Ethiopia, is physically a wonderful country. The present ruler is 
a man of high purposes and genuinely desires to develop his country and his 
people into helpful participation in modern progress. At present, however, the 
inter-colonial and international influence of Abyssinia is negative. Whatever the 
present condition of Abyssinia and Portuguese East Africa, it is certain that both of 
them will in the not distant future increasingly feel the virile forces of East Africa 
surging all about them. 

The governmental forces that matter most at the present time in East Africa are 
British. There are, first, the ten areas with varying degrees of dependency upon the 
British Colonial Office. Though Southern Rhodesia is included in the ten, it was 
given the right of responsible government in 1924. Second, there is ,the Union of 
South Africa, a vital part of the British Commonwealth. These two_units include 
21 of the 28 million people in Kast Africa, and 2 million of the 22 million square 
miles of territory. They have.thus the bulk of the land and the overwhelming 
majority of the people. Even more important than these advantages is the fact 
that practically all the European population is in the British areas. The distribution 
of the European stock in East Africa seems to be the most immediately potential of 
all facts in understanding the present or forecasting the future. As regards the 
number of Europeans, the Union of South Africa is far and away above all the 
others with over 1,500,000 white people. Southern Rhodesia is next with 33,000 
Europeans. Kenya follows with 10,000. The others are Northern Rhodesia, 
4,000 Europeans; Tanganyika, 2,500; Swaziland, 2,200; Bechuanaland, 1,700 ; 
Basutoland, 1,600; Nyasaland, 1,500; Uganda, 1,200; Zanzibar, 250. Comparison of 
these figures with those for Asiatics is both interesting and valuable. South Africa 
reports 155,000 Asiatics; Kenya, 36,000 ; Tanganyika, 15,000; Zanzibar, 14,000 ; 
and Uganda, 5,000. In the four tropical colonies Asiatics outnumber Kuropeans, 
but South Africa’s million and a half far overbalance all but the Native millions. 

B 


6 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


While Europe, and in particular the little Island in the northern seas, must give, 
and give, and still give, of their achievements in government, in art, in science and, 
above all, in the methods of human service, the potentialities of Africa seem intimately 
intertwined with the virility of the Union of South Africa and of the United States 
of America. South Africa is an integral part of the Continent. Its sons and 
daughters, whether of European or African ancestry, are native to the soil and the 
climate. To them is come the opportunity and the call to give altruistic reality to 
the prophetic exhortation of Cecil Rhodes, whose famous statue in Cape Town 
dramatically points them to the North. The United States, though territorially 
and politically separated from Africa, have a special experience and a sincerity of 
interest that warrants the expectation of increasing cooperation in all that concerns 
the welfare of the African. The winning of the great rural West and the successes 
and failures of racial adjustments in America are rich in valuable lessons for the 
development and adjustment of East Africa. What matters most in the service of 
the nations is that they shall go to Africa without warping preconceptions. What is 
now needed is inductive approach to the potentialities of people and country. It 
will be literally true of Africa that “ the meek shall inherit the earth.” 

Governments have entered, taken possession, and established peace and order. 
The extent of their success and failure is indicated. Traders, industrial operators 
and settlers have exploited and developed. The degree of their selfishness or service 
is recognized. Missionaries have left all to minister to the people. Their mistakes 
have been many. Their indifference to their own health and energy has often 
surpassed understanding. But the record shows a service rendered that will increas- 
ingly command the gratitude of international statesmanship. More and more the 
world is realizing the wisdom of working with rather than for a people. Thus are 
the Africans becoming positive factors in the destiny of their Continent. Their 
participation is required by discerning science, sound economics, correct sociology, 
real statesmanship and sincere Christianity. 

Dr. Aggrey, the African member of the Education Commission, picturesquely 
likens his pear-shaped Continent to a huge question mark among the continents of 
the earth. There it stands between the civilization of the Occident and the Orient, 
ready to be allied with either for the great struggles of the future, but equally 
susceptible to influences for peace. It may be reserved for Africa to reveal to the 
world that racial differentiations can become the basis of respect, and elements of 
human identity the basis of universal brotherhood. Its vast areas extend into the 
temperate zones of the Southern Hemisphere, and the world asks whether African 
influences there will be for conflict or for concord. The charm and the lure of Africa, 
its opportunities and responsibilities, invite the continents to share both the 
privileges and duties of its unknown future. 


CHAPTER II 
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 


HE determination of the aims of education is vital to the organization of an 
effective system of schools. Even casual inquiry, however, shows that this 
essential has been very generally neglected. The present confusion in educational 
thought and practice, whether in Europe, America or Africa, is largely due to the 
failure to define the aims of education. There has been a very unfortunate diver- 
gence in the attitude of missionaries, settlers and government officials toward Native 
education. The attitude of the missionaries has been determined by their desire to 
impart their religious ideas to the Native people and to win them to aChristian way of 
life. The government officials have naturally thought of the colonial administration 
and have felt the necessity for clerical help and such skilled workers as are needful for 
the surveying of roads and other means of transportation. Settlers and traders have 
been concerned for the various needs of their special occupations. The traders have 
joined with Government in a demand for clerks. The settlers’ demand has been 
primarily for laborers to till the soil and to carry on the varied activities of the farms. 
These diversities of view have been further intensified by the attitude taken toward 
the Native people. Some have recognized the principle of trusteeship and desire te 
assist the Natives to realize their full capacities as human beings; others have thought 
of them as economic assets to be exploited for the satisfaction of the party in control. 
In all the Colonies visited the first responsibility of the Commission has been to 
eliminate aims that are obviously antagonistic to the best interests of the Natives and 
of the Colony and to harmonize those aims that are natural, reasonable and desirable 
in the development of Africa and Africans. Possibly the most satisfactory result of 
the Commission’s activities has been the harmony developed among the colonial 
groups by the agreement as to the real aims of education. The measure of success 
achieved in the development of agreement is directly traceable to the recognition of 
the welfare of the African community as the object of primary consideration in the 
determination of educational objectives. It was evident to all that the conditions 
and needs of the community must be vital considerations in all efforts for improvement. 
The simplicity of this approach eliminated many possibilities of misunderstanding 
and debate. There remained then only to make the analysis of the elements that 
constitute community life and of the educational methods and agencies designed to 
act upon them. 

' Government, missions and settlers were ready to agree that the development of 
character is a vital requisite in all educational activities. Fortunately, too, there was 
an almost unanimous consensus of opinion that religion is a necessary means to a 
sound development of character. Health as a second objective was recognized with 
equal unanimity. It was evident to all that the physical well-being of the people is 
essential to the efforts of Government, missions and settlers in every Colony, The 


7 


8 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


vast physical resources of Africa, as yet hardly touched by either the African or the 
European, together with the almost abject poverty of the Natives, emphasize the 
importance of agriculture and industrial skill as a third objective in education. The 
improvement of family life through a knowledge of such home activities as the care 
of children, food, sleeping facilities, sanitation and all that centers about the life of 
woman was enthusiastically recognized as a fourth objective. All who are familiar 
with the pleasure-loving and joyous temperament of the African, which finds ex- 
pression in moonlight orgies, dances, and other physical excesses, readily agree that 
sound and healthful recreations should be added as a fifth objective. The possibility 
of adapting African music, dancing and other amusements further commends recrea- 
tion as an important element in education. 


With genuine agreement on the importance of these objectives, it has not been 
difficult to find a common mind as to educational agencies and methods. The 
most common of all are of course the ordinary school subjects, such as reading, writing 
and arithmetic. Their importance must be emphatically recognized as elements of the 
school curriculum, a knowledge of which is fundamental to all the rest. Unfortu- 
nately, however, these subjects have often been taught almost to the exclusion of 
those already named. There is no desire to exclude or diminish interest in the ordinary 
school subjects when it is recommended that reading, writing and arithmetic shall be 
used as the means of imparting knowledge and of building up practice in health, 
agriculture, industry, home life, recreation and, above all, character. 

Languages of instruction rank with the ordinary school subjects. The appeal to 
the Native mind cannot be effectively made without the adequate use of the Native 
language, nor can the essentials of sound character be taught nor interest in agriculture 
or industry be developed without its use. It is equally important that advanced pupils 
shall have opportunity to learn some European language as they themselves demand. 
Africa requires increasingly whatever knowledge can be adapted from European 
civilization to meet its peculiar needs. 

While the main emphasis of this Report falls upon the need for an education 
adapted to the conditions under which the majority of the African people live to-day, 
it must be emphatically stated that the Commission, one of whose members was a 
highly educated African holding a doctorate of philosophy from Columbia University, 
recognizes unhesitatingly that with the evolution of civilization in Africa education 
must include all that has been found necessary elsewhere, including advanced technical 
and agricultural training and professional knowledge of medicine, law and theology. 
But it is suggested that the first five objectives, with their vast implications for the 
welfare of the community, should influence even these and largely determine the type 
of professional training to be encouraged. The provision for teaching the great 
modern sciences, which will subsequently become necessary, should not therefore 
be limited by the traditional emphasis on literary subjects. Chemistry, physics and 
biology are transforming modern conceptions of the physical world. Economics, 
sociology and socialized history are giving a new appreciation of society. The 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 9 


educational evolution of Africa will require all that is best in the knowledge and 
thought of the West. 

It is to be hoped that the authority of tradition and custom in educational policy 
and method may not retard the early recognition of the need for education shaped on 
the lines which are put forward in this Report as of special value in Africa. The 
inflexible character of education in the past has too largely discouraged and even ex- 
cluded the changes required to suit the wide and deep diversities of African conditions 
and life. The rigidity of educational processes has strikingly limited the influence of 
schools in the development of the capacities of the Native people. It is increasingly 
recognized that Kurope and America have long suffered from this unchangeable quality 
in the education provided. Some adhere to this fixity of educational aim and method 
with dogmatic finality. The majority are doubtless merely accepting the established 
customs without question. It is important to remember that the more advanced 
civilizations have other institutions such as the home, the Church, the press to supple- 
ment the omissions and correct the errors of the schools. In primitive Africa, the 
school has a larger responsibility for the elevation of the people than any other 
institution. In many instances it is almost the only influence for Native welfare. 
Errors or omissions in policy and method in school education are therefore corre- 
spondingly more serious. 

The beginnings of a revolt against the rigidity of education are apparent in 
America and Europe. There is an insistent inquiry by the thoughtful public as to 
the purposes and methods of the school. Some of the efforts to improve the school 
have not been wise. The ever-enlarging bulk of knowledge and the ever-increasing 
complexity of social organization have caused educators to multiply subjects of in- 
struction and school departments. This method of accretion has only added to 
the perplexity of teacher and pupil and contributed to a certain futility in education. 
The reform of education needs something more thoroughgoing than the mere accretion 
of knowledge. 

The real reform calls for anew synthesis of knowledge and an adaptation of education 
based upon the condition and needs of society. Consciousness of community life, 
with all that it involves of human interactions and responsibilities, is the key to educa- 
tional reform. With this consciousness as the determinant of educational aims the 
merely factual contribution of education will be subordinated to such creative powers 
as are related to the needs of the community and the merely decorative elements will 
give way to the necessary equipment for service and citizenship. Herein then is the 
basic justification of the objectives proposed for education in Africa. The movement 
of present-day thought is toward the recognition of the native qualities of all peoples. 
The element of truth in the much discussed doctrine of self-determination is an ex- 
pression of the demand for the cultivation of whatever is worth while in the customs 
and life of the people under consideration. Governments and missions are conscious 
of the movement in this direction, and many are making earnest inquiry for concrete 
and definite methods of releasing the potentialities of the Native people. 

These movements and attitudes are already bearing fruit inthe notable awakening 


10 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of the African people. While this new consciousness is limited to a comparatively 
small number of the Native leaders, certain elements of restlessness extend rather 
widely among the people. As yet they hardly realize the significance of their own 
feelings. Their state of mind is susceptible of guidance either toward the constructive 
improvement of the present situation or toward futile and even destructive restlessness 
harmful to their own welfare and to the general interest of their country. Some would 
follow blindly the Europeans and adopt European customs by processes of imi- 
tation. They would cast aside their own Native customs as undesirable evidences 
of savagery and barbarism. Unfortunately the conceit of Western civilization has 
too often encouraged this superficial imitation of European customs and the disregard 
of everything Native. It is to be hoped that this will be discouraged. The wiser 
Native leaders are recognizing the futility of artificial imitation and are seeking to 
develop respect for whatever is good in their own history and in their present attain- 
ments. The situation is often further confused by the mixed motives of both the 
advocates of Native customs and those who would have the Native imitate European 
manners. The younger Natives frequently insist that the extreme advocacy of Native 
customs by the older chief is explained not only by his regard for tribal customs but 
also by his desire to continue what is often a very arbitrary and despotic control of the 
younger and more progressive minds. They insist that government officials support 
the older chiefs and their customs in order to delay the civic recognition of the more 
intelligent Natives. The older chiefs reply that the younger and restless elements 
of the people are urging the abolition of tribal customs and the adoption of European 
manners, not because of the primitive and decadent character of the customs but 
because they desire to undermine authority and to obtain control for themselves. 
The progressive elements of the Native people are strengthened in their determination 
to adopt only the methods of the white man by their fear that any other provision 
advocated by Europeans is an effort to impose a lower type of civilization upon them. 
The testimony of history and experience unfortunately supports much of their 
suspicion of the European motive. 

Just as the consciousness of community when applied to educational policy and 
method in Europe and America is gradually guiding toward a sound appreciation of 
the real needs, so will this consciousness bring order out of the chaos of Native opinion 
and aspirations. There is undoubtedly an element of truth in the authority of the old 
Native chief as well as in the demands of the younger Natives. In the careful study 
of their community needs they both will find the proportion of Native customs to be 
continued and the adaptations of European influences that are worth while. Self- 
determination as an idealistic doctrine applied in its extreme form undermines altruism 
and brotherhood. Self-determination guided in its application by a genuine conscious- 
ness of community needs may be a sound and helpful doctrine. Altruistic or religious 
effort applied without regard to Native.life may discourage and destroy initiative and 
self-respect. Altruistic activities based upon a consciousness of community will 
bring to that community whatever is good in other civilizations. An intelligent 
outlook upon the conditions and needs of the community is therefore urged as an 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS ll 


attitude of mind in the formulation of educational policies in Africa as elsewhere. 
Those who would make sound and effective use of this idea must be intellectually 
and wholeheartedly converted to a belief in it. While the methods of applying the 
idea are important, they are entirely secondary to a genuine belief in its importance. 

The major part of this chapter is devoted to the explanation of certain aims and 
agencies of education and the method of applying them in Africa. They have been 
selected because of their vital relation to community life as it is found in Africa to-day. 
They are, indeed, elements in any normal community and requisite to its effective 
education. It will be noted that the order in which these elements are presented is 
different from that used in the first paragraphs of this chapter. The training of 
character through moral and religious education and through the whole environment is 
treated first because of its obviously central importance. The ordinary school subjects 
and language come next, because of their prominence in the actual work of education. 
Schools are almost universally organized, at the present time, on the basis of subjects 
that have been taught for many years including, of course, the languages both of the 
Native people and of the European nation in control. Directors of education and 
teachers will first be compelled to make satisfactory use of the activities already well 
established in the school-system. It is emphatically recognized also that reading, 
writing, arithmetic and the languages of instruction include the most vital approach 
to all knowledge and to education in its most real sense. The next group of subjects, 
including hygiene, agriculture, industry, home activities and recreation follow one 
another as elements of a normal community to the welfare of which all educational 
effort is to be directed. There remains the question of advanced training and educa- 
tion for the professions. The order of the subjects then is only partly an indication 
of their importance. Ideally each is related to all the others. Character development 
is to be the coloring of every educational activity. Hygiene and health are to be 
emphasized whenever there is an opportunity whether in the teaching of arithmetic or 
in the care of the dormitory. Agricultural and industrial skill are to be extolled in the 
sermon as well as in the field and shop. The sanctity of the home is to be upheld in 
public as in private, the spiritual possibilities of recreation are to be presented in 
the classroom as well as on the playground. Similarly, the higher levels of collegiate 
and university education are to be rooted in a real regard for character, health, agri- 
culture, industry, the home and play, as well as in the historical and scientific apprecia- 
tion of the most intricate problems of life. Education is thus to be identical with life 
itself. It is to have the same elemental simplicity and reality and also the inextricable 
interdependence of the elements that constitute life. 

It will be noted in the sections to follow that there are usually four types of activities 
for the realization of each objective. The first agency is that of the personal influence 
of the staff. The second includes the institutional activities, whether incidental 
to the life of the institution or designed to realize the end in view. The third agency 
is the specialized instruction of the classroom or laboratory. The fourth and most 
inclusive of all is the contribution that school activities as a whole can make toward 
the realization of each objective. 


12 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


It is emphatically urged that these educational views apply with equal significance 
to the training of the masses and of the leaders. The education of both must be 
determined by a living consciousness of community needs. 


CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 


The processes of character development are at once the simplest and the most 
complicated ; the most real and the most indefinite; the most universal and the 
most elusive. They are simple, real and universal in that each word and each act 
may carry a moral significance that makes for sound character. They are compli- 
cated, indefinite and elusive in that the moral significance of words and acts extends 
into the most intricate phases of human thought and action. In view of the un- 
matched importance of character development, it is surprising that principles and 
methods for the formation of character are still so unformed. Some, impressed by 
the simplicity of the subject, have doubtless overlooked the importance of a scientific 
and carefully thought out approach; others, realizing its complicated and elusive 
qualities, have feared to undertake the responsibility. 

The three recognized lines usually followed in seeking to develop character are the 
inculeation of simple virtues by direct instruction, the formation of right habits 
which deepen through practice into principle, and the influence of religious teaching 
with its expression in personal, schoo] and community life. While methods for the 
teaching of ordinary subjects in the school curriculum have been developed almost 
to the point of artificiality, teachers have for the most part been left to find their 
own way in the far more complex region of character development. It is further the 
fact that where concrete help has been given it has sometimes been on mechanical lines 
which cut across the principles of educational psychology. 

The place of religion in character development is one of the most vital issues in 
the educational world to-day. There is an increasing agreement that religious 
instruction and practice are essential to sound character. The pronouncement of 
British colonial officials in favor of religious instruction for the education of the 
African people is a striking testimony to its importance. The value of such state- 
ments is enhanced when it is remembered that government officers are at times 
embarrassed by the appeals of the various types of religious organizations—including 
Mohammedanism and the diversified forms of Christianity—for recognition in the 
school system. There is room for fresh experiment in the relation of religious teach- 
ing to the school curriculum. The element of compulsion may have harmful results. 
Obvious limitations attach to religious teaching given in fixed periods by visiting 
representatives of external religious organizations ; the same difficulty arises when 
hostels are founded to:house students according to creed, and religious teaching is 
relegated from the school to its hostels. Such expedients may have local and tempo- 
rary advantages, but they are only partial solutions of the problem. If religion is 
to have its full influence, it must influence all the activities of the school. 

The real problem now confronting African educators is the formulation of practical 
suggestions for the teacher who is in daily contact with pupils. 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 18 


Character development must be removed from the abstract realm of ethics and 
related to concrete conditions and the daily experiences of life. In this task it 
is suggested that consciousness of community needs may be a determining factor. 
Such a consciousness will widen the basis of study, will reveal the practical values. 
of virtues, habits and ideals, and by stimulating the interest of pupils in real 
experiences round them will half unconsciously dispose them to perceive their own 
reactions to life. From learning the character needs of the community, the pupils 
may be led to discern their own. Such a method will prove as fascinating to the 
teacher as to the taught. 

When imagination is stirred on such a topic many approaches to it will be found. 
As an illustration, suggestions are worked out here for a survey of the character 
needs of a community in regard to the simpler elements of health, environment, 
family and recreation. While this would mainly be the task of the teachers and a 
few senior pupils, opportunity should be given for the participation of younger pupils 
too. No attempt has been made to grade the questions prepared. The teacher 
who grasps the idea as a whole will readily select for the cooperation of his pupils 
such parts as are relevant to their capacity. 

As to health, the survey would seek to establish the relation of health conditions 
to character development. How far do the high death rates of infants and adults 
reflect the low standards of character ? Are the prevailing diseases the result, to any 
degree, of immorality ? Does intemperance in food or drink undermine morality ? 
Are there excesses of pleasures, sexual or otherwise, that hinder the natural develop- 
ment of the community ? It is evident that the significance of the answers will lie 
in the fact that they relate to the interaction of health and character. These ques- 
tions are merely suggestive, and may be multiplied and varied according to the 
community and the students. 

The interaction of environment and character is obvious. Environment as an 

element of community life includes the conditions of agriculture and industry. There 
is also the human environment, including the relation to other tribes and to European 
influences. The character elements of these varying relationships may be sought 
in such questions as—What are the community ways and habits as regards thrift ; 
conservation of resources such as the soil and trees ; continuity of effort, punctuality 
and thoroughness in work? As regards the human environment, there are such 
questions as the attitude towards other tribes ; friendship or hostility towards the 
Government ;_ the spirit of cooperation in relation to other groups, whether family, 
tribal or colonial. 
_ Family life is potentially the most effective determinant of character. Inquiry 
into the interaction of character development and family life should be most care- 
fully made. What are the relations of parents to each other, of parents to children, 
of children to each other; what is the estimate of woman in the home; what 
provision is made for the separation of the sexes; do sleeping facilities contribute 
to the strengthening of character; is any effort made to dignify the meal ? 

Recreation has evidently an intimate relationship to character. This relationship 

B2 


14 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


may be ascertained by such questions as—Do the amusements of the people strengthen 
or undermine the simple virtues of life, such as honesty, fair play, generosity, courage, 
purity, love of the beautiful ? Or do they develop the sensuous, selfish and degrading 
qualities of human nature ? 

This inquiry into the interaction of character and the simpler elements of 
community life may be followed by an examination into the relation of character 
development to the organized forms of community life, such as Government, tribal 
organization, school and Church. This advanced form of inquiry is more germane 
to the higher phases of education. The questions suggested in the preceding para- 
graphs reflect the type of inquiry which may be adapted for these more complicated 
relationships. 

In view of the vital importance of religion, it may be helpful to suggest specific 
questions on the interaction of character and religion. Observation of religious 
activities in Africa suggests the value of the following type of questions :—Do the 
Native people understand the relation of religion to their daily activities? How 
does their conception of this relationship differ from that of their belief in idol or 
fetish ? Has Christianity freed them of superstitious fears and the degrading elements 
of their customs ? Inquire as to the interaction or potential teraction of religion 
and health, environment, family life and recreation. This may be done by the 
substitution of the terms “ religious life ’’ for “‘ character development ”’ in questions 
relating to these community elements. 


Methods of Character Development 


When a vital consciousness of the need of the community for character develop- 
ment has been realized, through such inquiries as those suggested above, the teaching 
staff will be prepared to formulate principles and methods of education for the realiza- 
tion of sound character and religious life. These principles and methods relate to 
four types of school organization and activities : ‘i 


(1) The personal example of the teaching staff is probably the most fundamental 
influence for character development as for all other objectives of education. Exhor- 
tations and school machinery are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal if the life 
of those responsible for education does not personify the ideals advocated. 


(2) Organizations related to church life and regular and special services of a 
religious, ethical and devotional character have a distinct value, whether they are 
designed for the teaching staff or for the pupils. They will, of course, reflect the 
varying degrees of community consciousness that have been realized by the school 
officers. 


(8) Moral and religious instruction in the school curriculum will reflect the results 
of the researches made into the character needs of the community. The outline and 
questions suggested above for the survey of the community may be made the basis 
of the instruction and the facts assembled may supply the context. The subjects 
will be taught with the vitality of a teacher who has seen and felt these needs. Such 


& 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 15 


moral and religious instruction will of course often be associated with the study of the 
Bible, the one book which is related to the needs of all people at all times. 


(4) Most inclusive of all is the coloring of every school activity, whether in the 
classroom, laboratory, field, shop, dormitory, dining-room, playground, church 
or school chapel, whether in the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic, or in 
the discussion of health, environment, family life or recreation, with influences 
favorable to the formation of character. The whole life of the school must reflect 
such a vital interest in character development as to leave the pupil in no doubt as to 
its primary importance. 

The place of religion in these four expressions of education described above should 
be unique and real. Dr. Frissell, the late Principal of Hampton Institute, regularly 
referred in his prayers to the realities of the unseen world. Teachers and students 
of that famous institution will ever remember the frequent quotation of that signifi- 
cant verse: “ Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Both General 
Armstrong and Dr. Frissell, and their famous N egro pupils, Principal Booker Wash- 
ington, the founder of Tuskegee, and Dr. Moton, the present Principal of that re- 
nowned institution for Negroes, have always sought to inspire their pupils with a 
living regard for the unseen and spiritual influences so essential to the fullness of life. 

The power of religion in molding life is nowhere better realized than in the life 
of Booker Washington. “ He possessed in a rare degree the spirit of Jesus,” said 
Dr. Buttrick, the well-known Chairman of the General Education Board, in his 
memorial address on Booker Washington. “ He realized that the spirit of Jesus is 
the salvation of the individual and of society. He thought in a high and large way 
of the common things of life. He exalted the homely virtues. He saw and taught 
that the religious life found its true expression, not in the ecstasies of emotion, but 
in the doing of common things right. To him the Kingdom of Heaven was not some 
far-off thing, but his own home, his own office, his own school, his circle of friendship. 
To him the Kingdom of Heaven was love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
meekness, goodness, faith. His life was conditioned and controlled by the spirit 
of Him who said: ‘If ye love me ye will keep my commandments ; he that will 
be chief among you, let him become the servant of all.’ ” 


ORDINARY ScHOOL SUBJECTS 


The ordinary school subjects such as reading, writing and arithmetic have 
hitherto had almost a monopoly of the school program. With full appre- 
ciation of their importance in education, it is necessary to differentiate their contri- 
bution from that of such elements related to the community as hygiene, agriculture 
and industrial skill, improved family life and healthful recreations. In contrast 
with these elements most of the ordinary school subjects are means of intellectual 
acquisition and expression and deal primarily with the transfer of knowledge. This 
was formerly regarded as the primary or sole responsibility of the school in Europe 


16 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


and in America. The fully organized society of the more advanced countries was able 
to supply other elements of education through such organizations as the home, 
industry, Government and Church. Primitive society is notably lacking in the institu- 
tions required to supplement the influence of the school. The informational objective 
must, therefore, contribute directly to the knowledge of these subjects which are 
essential to community life. In the broadened conception of education which is rapidly 
gaining ground in Europe and America there is not only this enrichment of the 
informational objective by relating it to community life, but also the addition of 
school activities that are increasingly similar to those of actual life. From the verbal 
and written discussion of subjects in the classroom, pupils and teachers proceed 
first to actual illustration in the school laboratory, and then, whenever possible, to 
participation in the reality of community life. If these realities of educational 
method and practice are required in Europe and America, some provision for them is 
infinitely more needed in the primitive societies of Africa. 

The teaching of the ordinary school subjects must, then, be directed from a basis 
of living consciousness of the community needs. A few illustrations may be helpful 
to those who would test each school subject to ascertain what use may be made of it 
to transmit knowledge of some conditions and requirements of neighborhood life. 


Arithmetic and Elements of Community Life 


Arithmetic has great possibilities of adaptation. In the teaching of health, even 
the younger pupils can begin to count the number of people in the village ;_ the pro- 
portion of children in the population will interest them; the number of men and 
women; the number of sick people; the number living in a house. In the more 
advanced communities they may count the number of windows and relate them to 
the light and ventilation needs of the home ; they may calculate the air space in the 
home and in the school ; they may make some estimate of carriers of infection such 
as flies and mosquitoes. The teacher may bring to the pupils figures and charts 
relating to food values ; the amount of money spent on useless and harmful drinks ; 
the sleep requirements of the normal individual. There is no limit to the extent and 
variety of material which an ingenious teacher of arithmetic will discover for the 
teaching of health. 

The adaptation of the teaching of arithmetic to agricultural pursuits has interesting 
possibilities also. The children may begin by making various calculations with 
regard to the food crops of the community ; the number of families having crops of 
various kinds; comparisons of the amounts of different cereals and vegetables ; 
the length of time taken to consume the crop; the amount sold; the value of the 
crop, and so on. In the higher classes there may be calculations made pertaining 
to the amount of water in plants; the extent of soil; the importance of varying 
crops to the tribe and to the colony. The teacher may bring into the classroom 
the statistics of different crops inthe colony. In addition to the soil products there 
is the animal life closely connected with agricultural operations. Interesting and 
important arithmetical problems may be formed in relation to the number and value 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 17 


of domestic animals, such as chickens, goats, cows, etc. It is urged that artificiality 
shall be avoided and that each subject shall be so presented as to arouse real interest 
in the soil and in animal life. 

Similarly the workshop, the home and the playground provide a wealth of 
arithmetical material which may be used to equip the youth for a more effective 
participation in community life. In village industries there are endless arithmetical 
processes too obvious to require illustration. The activities of the home and family 
life provide examples relating to food, clothing, sleeping space, gardening, and cost 
of living. Recreation and play have also their arithmetical elements. It would be 
salutary for the elder pupils to consider the proportion of time spent in various forms 
of recreation, classifying them according to their value in building up the physique or 
in undermining health through loss of sleep. There are such computations as the 
number of hours spent in physical games ; in beer drinking; in moonlight dances ; 
and comparison of these hours with hours of labor. For the younger pupils there 
are problems connected with laying out the playground; the cost of playground 
equipment ; and the relative time of walking and running. 


Reading and Elements of Community Life 


Reading and writing probably surpass arithmetic in the possibility of adaptation 
for the presentation of community needs. Reading lessons may be filled with helpful 
suggestions as to health needs, such as nutritious food; cleanliness of body and 
clothing, of home and school. The upper standards may study the achievements in 
the realm of sanitation and hygiene by such men as Pasteur and other great scientists 
who have freed humanity from disease and suffering. The Old Testament, and 
especially the Mosaic laws, and verses from the New Testament may be effectively 
used to strengthen the interest of the pupil in health. 

Agriculture and rural life are receiving increasing recognition in literature. Pupils 
of primary and advanced grade may profitably be given reading and writing tasks 
relating to garden and farm, and the life of domestic animals. Where pupils can 
read a European language the teacher may draw largely on magazines and books 
describing the remarkable activities of rural Denmark and other parts of the world 
where agriculture has received proper recognition. The Bulletins of the United States 
Department of Agriculture and also the Hampton Leaflets describe the influence of 
farm demonstration and various rural clubs that have increased the food supply and 
brought prosperity to the people. It is impossible to overstate the pressing urgency 
of the need for a richer school literature capable of being related to community needs. 
Few of the existing primers, readers and text-books in the English language lend 
themselves to this use. In African vernaculars, with a few notable exceptions, such 
books scarcely exist. There are, however, hopeful indications that this situation is 
now being realized, at least in part, and that Governments and missions are taking 
initial steps to meet it. Meantime much might be done by the wise allocation of 
small additional funds to enable teachers to purchase books and pamphlets on the 
lines here indicated as a basis for oral instruction. It is worth making inquiry of 


18 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the Agricultural Department in each colony, as good material for the teacher may be 
available. 

The home and family life have so full a place in literature as to make proper 
selection difficult. There are descriptions—again only for readers of European 
languages—of typical European and American homes; biographies of women who 
have realized the ideals of motherhood and the home in the full meaning of that 
wonderful place ; discussions of fatherhood, with all its responsibilities ; and stories 
of childhood and youth that are filled with inspiration. Both the Old and New 
Testament have many important references to home life and all that makes it sacred. 
In the more practical realm there is much material relating to the care of children 
and of the home, the relation of the sexes, the preparation of food and clothing, and 
the accommodation for sleep. 

Sound ideas of recreation are amply presented in many pamphlets and books. 
The teacher can obtain—again in European languages—reading material from 
Europe or from America that describes the healthful games and amusements of 
civilized peoples. It would be helpful for the teacher to encourage the pupils to 
describe their own games as compared with those of other lands. Classroom dis- 
cussion would doubtless result in sifting the desirable from the undesirable elements 
in the amusements. In the course of time it would be possible for schools in different 
parts of Africa to exchange compositions describing the games and various forms of 
recreation of different tribes. Effort should be made to include discussions of recrea- 
tions that are designed to build up the physique, to quicken the mind and to develop 
sound ideals of character. 


Other School Subjects and Elements of Community Life 


Such other school subjects as history, geography, music and drawing should be in- 
fluenced by a living consciousness of the community. How much more vital each of 
these subjects could be made if each were made to contribute to a better appreciation of 
the health, the agriculture, the industry, the home life and the recreations of humanity. 
If it occurs to anyone that this living presentation of the ordinary school subjects is 
materialistic or trivial, let him examine the present content of school instruction 
to see the artificiality and the wholly irrelevant elements that are too frequently 
dragged from supposedly high places in distant parts of the world to confuse the 
minds of the African youth. Why should the African youth sing the “‘ British Grena- 
diers ” and the ‘‘ Marseillaise’’ and despise the music of his own people? Why should 
the history and geography of Europe and America receive more attention than that 
of Africa itself? Unfortunately the history taught to American and European youth 
has not had sufficient regard for the more essential elements of the community. Wars 
and the doings of high officers of Government and unusual events have excluded proper 
consideration of the masses of the people. Much of the unrest in the colonial posses- 
sions in Africa and Asia is explained by the wrong presentation of history. The pro- 
gress of great nations is made’to appear by recorded history to be much more the 
result of strife, rebellion, and revolution and various other forms of demands for rights 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 19 


than of willingness and ability to undertake and successfully to carry responsibility. 
History lamentably neglects the contribution of those who have established sani- 
tation, who have increased the productivity of the land, who have taught industry, 
who have established the sacredness of family life, who have introduced healthful 
recreations and even those who have made the sterling qualities of character essential 
in society. Most unfortunate of all is the failure of history to recognize adequately 
the transforming power of Christian ideals where they have operated among the 
nations and the peoples of the earth. When history and the other social sciences are 
taught in response to the demands of a real consciousness of the welfare of the com- 
munity, they will impart to humanity whether in Europe, America, Africa or else- 
where a knowledge of the essentials of social progress. 


LANGUAGES OF INSTRUCTION 


The languages of instruction rank with the ordinary school subjects as means 
of acquiring and transferring knowledge. These languages in Africa are usually 
the Native speech or dialect and the language of the European nation in control. 
Both these languages have, however, a contribution of far greater significance than 
that of the mere transfer of knowledge. The European language is not only the 
agency for acquiring information of the usual character; it is the means of uniting 
Africa with the great civilizations of the world. With full appreciation of the 
European language, the value of the Native tcngue is immensely more vital, in that 
it is one of the chief means of preserving whatever is good in Native customs, ideas 
and ideals, and thereby preserving what is more important than all else, namely, 
Native self-respect. All peoples have an inherent right to their own language. It is 
the means of giving expression to their own personality, however primitive they may 
be. The processes of education must begin with the characteristics of the people as 
they are and help them to evolve to the higher levels. No greater injustice can be 
committed against a people than to deprive them of their own language. It is inter- 
esting and significant to note that one of the first and most emphatic demands of the 
nations that are now endeavoring to realize self-determination is to re-establish 
their own language. Even though it may be a futile attempt because another lan- 
guage is practically in control, the longing for their own language is natural and 
justifiable. 

The use of a European language has been advocated from mixed motives by both 
Kuropeans and Natives. In the past practically all controlling nations forced their 
languages on the Native people and discouraged the use of their Native tongue. This 
was true centuries ago in Great Britain. Fortunately at the present time the 
only Powers that still maintain this attitude in some of their possessions are the 
French and the Portuguese. Whatever the motives, whether pride of language, 
nationality, or even the generous desire to share their language with those whom 
they control, the policy is unwise and unjust. The disregard of the Native language 
is a hindrance even to the acquisition of the European language. Much more does 


20 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


it limit the sympathetic and real exchange of ideas and influences, which are necessary 
to mutual confidence between Africans and Europeans. 

The Native people are as a rule eager to learn an European language. Their desire 
is based on an intuitive feeling that the language will open new opportunities, and also 
on experiences where a common language would have avoided many difficulties 
through the free and natural approach to the government officers. The Native leaders 
will become increasingly conscious of their dependence on European civilization 
for much of their progress. They will desire to help Africa to break through the age- 
long isolation which has kept it in bondage to superstition and suffering. Already 
they see-the great resources, material and human, that may be developed through 
European agencies. It will not be long before they want to know such great physical 
sciences as chemistry and biology and to catch the inspiration of the great literatures. 
They will want through study of history and the social sciences to profit by the 
failures and the successes of other peoples. It is little wonder, therefore, that some 
Native leaders in Africa have almost been willing to forget their own language in 
their enthusiasm for the languages of civilization. It was natural for these leaders 
to mistake for generosity the narrow nationalism of European colonists in fostering 
an European language to the neglect of the Native tongue. 

This emphatic belief in the value of the Native languages is not to be interpreted 
to justify the indiscriminate adoption of all African dialects as claiming encourage- 
ment and continuous use. While many African languages are rich in words with 
delicate shades of meaning, others, on the contrary, are merely dialects with only 
unimportant differentiations from the parent tongue. In many colonies there is a 
multiplicity of dialects spoken by small groups who are thus estranged from one 
another to the point of hostility. The process of selecting the Native languages of 
greatest value to the Native people is often exceedingly difficult. ‘The comparative 
merits of several dialects in a colony may require years of scientific study. The 
testimony of Europeans or Natives who speak a particular dialect is likely to be 
prejudiced favorably by that knowledge. The ability to weigh the value of testimony 
as to languages must be based on real knowledge of the dialects under consideration. 
There are also geographical elements that influence the value of a dialect, such as the 
number of people who speak it, the status and potentiality of the people as compared 
with others of a different dialect, and territorial proximity. 

Missionaries of several nationalities deserve much credit for their study of Native 
languages. Through their devoted efforts a large number of the dialects have been 
reduced to writing, and the Bible, either in part or in its entirety, has been translated 
into them. In this great achievement the British and Foreign Bible Society, whose 
work in East African languages will presently be noted, has rendered a service of 
incalculable value. A number of small text-books and pamphlets have also been 
translated into many vernaculars. Governments have not sufficiently encouraged 
this important service to the Native people of Africa. With full recognition of what 
has been done, the task, as has been urged in a preceding section, is only begun. 
There is now need for the active cooperation of Governments, missions and com- 


PLATE I 





HEALTH : THE OLD WAY 


(a) A Black Magician, Portuguese East Africa ; (b) An Exorcist and his Wife, Portuguese 
East Africa ; (c) A Medicine Man’s Gear, Kenya ; (d) The Old Way and the New. 


Prarp sy] 





HEALTH : THE NEW WAY 
(a) Dispensary at Kikuyu ; (b) Swiss Doctors at Work, Portuguese East Africa. 


Puate IIE 





RECREATION : CHILDREN AT PLAY 


(a) Boy Modelling Animals in Clay, Bechuanaland ; (b) ‘“* Drop the Handkerchief,” 
Tanganyika ; (c) Christian Children at Play, Kikuyu. 


PLATE IV 





PHYSICAL CULTURE 
(a) First XI, Maseno School, Kenya; (b) Boys’ Brigade, Kikuyu; (c) The School 
Bathing, Likoma, Lake Nyasa; (d) Drill at St. Peter’s High School, Uganda. 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 21 


mercial organizations with scientific students of languages to make a thorough survey 
of African tongues and dialects, so that the present confusion and uncertainty may 
be corrected and that vernacular literature may be issued on well-directed and effective 
lines. 

Looked at in the light of community needs, the belief of the teacher in all that has 
been said concerning the languages of instruction will be strengthened. With such 
a consciousness the teacher will be eager to know the Native dialects, so that intimate 
contacts may be established with every phase of community life. Through the Native 
language the older people will become known as well as the youth in schoo]—their 
health, their agricultural needs and achievements, their village crafts, their homes, 
or lack of homes, their play, both good and bad, their music and folk melodies, whether 
degrading or inspiring, all will gradually unfold through the magic of the Native tongue. 
What changes will then follow in the teaching and the preaching; in the exchange 
of shop and field, of home and playground! The more real the insight into Native 
life through the Native language, the more real and the more intelligent will be the 
demand for the European language to serve as the medium for the transfer of 
whatever civilization has to give to primitive Africa in all phases of life. 

In view of the great importance of both the Native tongue and the language of the 
Kuropean nation in control, it is significant that universities are giving increased 
attention to the study of Native languages. In the Union of South Africa, the 
Universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town are maintaining courses or 
departments of Native thought and language which are attracting students in increas- 
ing numbers. European nations with colonial possessions are beginning to require 
candidates for colonial service to study Native customs and language. The following 
statement on language study for missionaries was prepared by members of the staff 
of the School of Oriental Studies in London, and issued by the Board of Study. for 
the Preparation of Missionaries. It is a comprehensive outline of the language 
needs of those who would work in colonial Africa, whether they are missionaries, 
traders, or government officials : 


(a) We regard a mastery of the vernacular of the people among whom he works as essential for 
the missionary. Even though he may be able to do a certain amount of work through the medium 
of English, a knowledge of the vernacular will add greatly to his effectiveness as a missionary. 

(o) As far as our experience and information go, we are of opinion that the average level of 
proficiency attained by missionaries in the vernacular at the present time is regrettably and even 
dangerously low. 

(c) Candidates should know at least a year before sailing to what country and to what language 
area they are to be sent, in order that they may undertake special preparatory study. The linguistic 
side of this special preparation should include a course of lessons in phonetics and some study of 
modern methods of language learning. But neither the phonetics nor the language methods should 
be studied merely in the abstract, but side by side with some actual work upon a non-European 
language—if possible, the vernacular that will be needed on the field. 

(d) After reaching the field, it is important that no responsibility should be put upon the new 
missionary that would hinder his acquiring as rapidly as possible facility in the use of the vernacular. 

(e) Where language schools do not exist on the field, steps should be taken to train a sufficient 
number of whole-time Native teachers in the best modern methods of language teaching. 


22 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


(f) The language examinations should place far more stress on practical ability to make use of a 
language than upon knowledge of systematic grammar. 


The observations and experience of the long tour in East Africa support the 
conclusions and recommendations formulated in the report of the Commission to 
West and Equatorial Africa and they are presented herewith from Education in 
Africa, pp. 25, 26. 


The elements to be considered in determining the languages of instruction are (1) that every 
people have an inherent right to their Native tongue ; (2) that the multiplicity of tongues shall not 
be such as to develop misunderstandings and distrust among people who should be friendly and 
cooperative ; (8) that every group shall be able to communicate directly with those to whom the 
government is entrusted; and (4) that an increasing number of Native people shall know at least 
one of the languages of the civilized nations. In determining the weight of each of these elements, 
it is of course necessary to ascertain the local conditions. It is clear that there is comparatively 
little, if any, advantage in the continuation of a crude dialect with practically no powers of expression. 
It is also evident that the need for a lingua franca is not essential to a large group of people 
speaking the same language and living under conditions that do not require much intercommunication. 
It may even be true that some one of the Native languages may be so highly developed as to make 
possible the translation of the great works of civilization into that language. With due consideration 
for all of these elements and the modifying circumstances, the following recommendations are 
offered as suggestions to guide Governments and educators in determining the usual procedure 
in most African colonies : 

1. The tribal language should be used in the lower elementary standards or grades. 

2. A lingua franca of African origin should be introduced in the middle classes of the school if 
the area is occupied by large Native groups speaking diverse languages. 

3. The language of the European nation in control should be taught in the upper standards. 


HEALTH AND HYGIENE 


The importance of health, as an objective of missionary and government 
efforts, has been recognized in the institution of dispensaries, hospitals and 
health departments. Medical missionaries and medical officers have rendered a 
truly remarkable service in many parts of Africa. Health as an objective in edu- 
cation is, however, only beginning to be recognized. The potentialities of the school 
not only for the prevention of disease but for the building up of the physical welfare 
of the community are not adequately reflected in the school curriculum. 

This indifference is doubtless the result of the incidental value which the educa- 
tional world continues to attach to health. Programs of hygiene and of sanitation in 
civilized communities have evolved with great rapidity. A few years ago the chief 
concern was the curing of disease. This has been followed by widespread campaigns 
for the prevention of disease and epidemics. There is now the third stage, namely, 
the building up of the physique so that the full measure of manhood and womanhood 
may be realized in an extension of life and in physical capacities enjoyed by every 
element of the social group. Unfortunately the school systems of many civilized 
countries have not kept pace with this evolution. Schools of some nations do not 
even share in the inspiring campaigns for the prevention of disease. It would be 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 23 


interesting to ascertain what proportion of educators understand the significance of 
the statistics issued annually by the health department in our civilized countries. 
Those issued in the last three years by the British Registrar-General’s office are almost 
dramatic as indications of the progress made in the elimination of disease. A general 
death rate of only 12 per 1,000, announced for 1923, measures not only the ability to 
prevent disease but also an economic, moral and social well-being that should eliminate 
pessimism with regard to Great Britain and give courage to deal with the perplexing 
problems of the present day. So long as the school systems of civilized countries 
do not advocate health education as potential for the general improvement of society, 
it is not surprising that African schools should be lacking in this respect. It must 
be urged, however, that tropical Africa can less afford to neglect any forms of health 
propaganda than civilized countries with their multiplicity of social organizations 
supplementing the school. 

The ravages of preventable disease in Africa can hardly be imagined by those who 
enjoy the health conditions of civilized countries. In contrast with death rates of 
12 to 15 per 1,000 in England and America, the death rates in primitive communities 
in Africa range from 50 to 100. The contrast in infant mortality is even more 
striking. Whereas the death rates in England and America range from 60 to 100 
per 1,000 of infants under one year of age, in Africa the infant death rate probably 
ranges from 300 to 600 and in some cases far above 600.* Under such conditions the 
importance of education in matters of health becomes imperative. Even from the 
point of view of labor requirements in Colonial Africa, the present waste of Native 
life is almost disastrous to any adequate development of the resources. Under the 
stimulus and direction of industrial and agricultural organization, the demand for 
labor is increasing with great rapidity. Competition for Native labor is so acute 
in some colonies as to give rise to measures for the prevention of certain agricultural 
and industrial activities. Settlers in some colonies are now fearing the results of a 
large extension of cotton cultivation lest it further reduce the labor supply for the 
necessary operations of their own farms. There is even apprehension as to the 
development of village industries for the same reason. While it is obviously sound 
to consider the relationship of any labor supply to existing agricultural and industrial 
activities, real economic statesmanship requires the longer view which provides for 
the increase of the labor supply to make possible the full development of the 
resources, 

The exclusion of any agricultural or industrial development in a colony on account 
of an inadequate labor supply, while disease is permitted to carry on its ravages 
among the people, is economically indefensible except as a temporary measure. 
Sound policy is obviously to make possible the full influence of hygiene and sani- 
tation not only through health departments and medical workers but much more 
through a school system that extends to the most distant village with its effective 
lessons in hygiene and sanitation. 

But the teaching of health has far wider significance than the physical well- 

* See quotations from medical authorities under the various colonies in the ensuing chapters. 


24 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


being of the people and the economic prosperity of the colony. The discussion of 
character development has already indicated the intimate relationship of character 
to sound health. Christ’s healing of sickness was not merely for the physical comfort 
o! the individual ; He recognized the relation of mind and spirit to the condition of 
the body. The discussion of health in the class room involves mental operations 
concerning concrete and definite proposals that are far more intelligible and vital 
to youth than many of the processes of a merely literary education. St. Paul’s 
well-known reference to the body as the ‘‘ temple of the Holy Spirit ” represents 
the ideal of physical well-being for which education should strive. 

A true consciousness of health as a factor in the life of the community involves 
the realization of the importance of the whole subject and points to the advisability 
of a survey of the community to assemble the main facts concerning the health of 
the people and the sanitary conditions of the neighborhood. This should be under- 
taken by the teacher with the aid of those pupils who are able to cooperate. It may 
be helpful to suggest a few of the more important items of information to be sought 
if such a survey is set on foot. 

Food and Water.—Inquiries as to quality, quantity and preparation. This applies 
especially to the feeding of infants and younger children. 

Clothing.—Cleanliness and suitability for heat and cold. Many Natives in 
Africa suffer tremendously from the great variations of temperature. 

Housing.—Cleanliness, ventilation, crowding by people and animals, protection 
from cold, heat and rain. Attention should also be given to the storage of grain 
where it can be protected from rats. 

Sanitary Facilities —The utter absence of sanitary facilities is known to be largely 
the cause of the spread of such diseases as typhoid fever and hook-worm. 

Dangerous Insects—The prevalence of such dangerous insects as mosquitoes, 
tsetse flies and fever ticks should be noted and where possible their breeding places 
discovered. 

Prevalent Diseases ——In the absence of any government record of disease and 
death serious effort should be made to ascertain the number of people suffering from 
different diseases and especially the number of deaths; if possible the number of 
deaths of infants under a year old should be discovered as well as the probable cause. 

Careful study of these results will reveal many important facts concerning the 
whole life of the community. The ingenuity of teachers will make possible the 
multiplication of such questions. Once the teacher realizes the wide significance of 
health, inquiries will proceed from subject to subject until the most vital elements 
of the community are revealed. As the teacher gains experience and knowledge he 
will find among the informing subjects of such a survey the method and influence 
of witch doctors, not only on the health but on other phases of Native life. 

These inquiries on the part of the teachers will result in such a living consciousness 
of community health as to guarantee the effective recognition of health in all 
educational processes. The lamentable omissions of health from the school curri- 
cula will no longer be possible. Most effective of all in the cause of hygiene and 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 25 


sanitation, every school activity will be colored by an interest in the physical well- 
being of the individual and of the community. 


Methods of Health Education 


The four methods of making education in health a reality are: 

(1) The personal influence of the physical habits of the staff. This influence has 
in the past been great. The Native people have undoubtedly learned much of hygiene 
and sanitation from what they have seen of the personal life of Europeans in Africa, 
It must of course be admitted that they have also learned some things that are 
detrimental to health. 

(2) The value of dispensaries and hospitals with the medical officers and medical 
missionaries in charge has already been mentioned. In the curing of disease their 
contribution has been notable. Government Departments of Health have also 
done much in the prevention of disease, but none of these achievements can take the 
place of school instruction with regard to health. 

(3) The third element in the health program is the specific provision for the 
teaching of hygiene and sanitation in the school curriculum. This has not been 
adequate in the past. In fact it has often been entirely omitted. The time allowed 
in some schools has usually been very brief and the teaching formal and unrelated 
to actual conditions. A notable exception is the provision planned by the Director 
of Education in Tanganyika, who has prepared a small text-book on hygiene in 
Swahili suitable for the Natives of that Colony. The effective classroom teaching of 
hygiene and sanitation requires that the periods of instruction shall be distributed 
through the curriculum so that younger and older pupils may be sure to have an 
opportunity of being instructed in these subjects. It should be made possible for 
teachers to qualify in physiology, hygiene and sanitation on simple lines related 
to the life of the people and, whenever possible, instruction should be given them 
in first-aid and in the simpler forms of medical treatment. The large central school 
should offer special training for such health workers as visiting nurses and medical 
assistants wherever the health conditions require them. 

(4) None of these more specialized forms of health teaching can completely fulfil 
the demands of a consciousness of community health. Curing of disease is not 
enough. Prevention of illness is the second stage of health evolution. The complete 
health service must seek to build up the body and relate it to mind and spirit. To 
this end every possible school activity must make its contribution to health. The 
spirit of health service must pervade the whole school. The school house itself and 
‘the various activities of the school should be an object lesson of sound ideas of hygiene. 


Home AcTIVITIES 


The contribution of the home to the progress of civilized society is probably 
greater than that of any other organization. In comparison with the larger and 
more complicated organizations of Government, Church, schoo] and business, the 


26 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


simplicity of the individual home has hidden its real importance. While the 
other organizations are constantly discussed in current publications, both magazines 
and newspapers, the home receives consideration only on the occasion of some unusual 
event, and that too frequently a divorce case or some other unfortunate break in 
family relations. With the growth of large cities and the increasing complexity of 
community life the value of the home is being increasingly overlooked. It is little 
wonder therefore that in school organizations of civilized communities the as of 
the home have not received adequate consideration. 

The new sense of social responsibility that is now developing with such pleasing 
rapidity will rediscover the home. Already there are evidences of a new appreciation 
of the place of the home in society. The social settlement has been partly an effort 
to reproduce the influences of home life in a larger community. Schools of domestic 
science are being organized for the improvement of home activities. Most important 
of all in the recognition of the place of the home has been the entrance of woman 
with greater authority into every phase of community life. Woman as the organizer 
of the home and the mother of the children personifies home influences as no other 
member of society can. 

In primitive society the influence of the home has been limited in many ways. 
First of all the low position of woman in tribal affairs has depreciated and in many 
instances degraded her—the most essential member of the home. Furthermore, 
many of the functions and responsibilities of the home in primitive society are assumed 
by the tribal organization. In the matronymic organization the responsibility for the 
children is more the right of the maternal uncles than that of the father. Even under 
the patronymic system the authority of the father is largely in the hands of the clan 
or tribal chief. The absence of proper housing arrangements has also even more 
than in crowded areas in the West drastically limited the possibility of developing 
family life. There has been no adequate provision for the privacy required for the 
cultivation of family ties. In many tribes only the young children can live in the 
parental hut. The older children in many sections of Africa are compelled by custom 
to live away even from the parental compound. Polygamy has, of course, a dis- 
ruptive effect on the home life as it is understood by civilized society. It is obvious 
therefore that education must place heroic emphasis on the development of family 
life. 

The conflicting relation of tribal consciousness and the altruistic consciousness of 
the needs of a community is apparent in the consideration of the home and its 
activities. It is evident that tribal consciousness while apparently similar to con- 
sciousness of community may be opposed to the full development of the home. The 
selfishness of tribal authority tends to discourage the individuality of the home. There 
is a similar incongruity in many phases of community life. The physical well-being of 
the individual is too frequently subject to the selfish authority of the chief. Similarly 
the economic prosperity of both family and individual is hampered by the necessity of 
ministering to the tribal system. Nowhere, however, does such centralized authority 
work so harmfully as in the home and the family. There is here need of clear realization 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 27 


of the danger lest despotic centralization of traditional authority in tribe and chief 
be permitted to retard or hinder the development of the home—the most essential 
organized unit of civilization. 

Every phase of colonial welfare is emphatically dependent on the healthful and 
normal development of the home and family life of the Native people. The conserva- 
tion of human life so essential to the labor supply is more intimately dependent on 
home activities than on those of the hospital and clinic. The settler and trader 
should therefore be actively interested in all that pertains to the Native homes. The 
qualities of character required by the Government can be better cultivated in the 
home than elsewhere. Here the youth may be taught a sense of responsibility, the 
place of authority, loyalty and obedience, an understanding of thrift and industry. 
Missionaries can make large use of the home in the inculcation of high ideals and in 
the placing of religion at the heart of everyday life. In the home may be developed 
a spirit of service to others, a love of the beautiful and the good, and an appreciation 
of the Divinity that rules us all. 


Survey of Homes in a Community 


The survey of the homes in a community should be thorough and comprehensive. 
It should include a study of the marital customs, the care of children, the relation of 
parents to children and of children to each other, the housing and sanitary arrange- 
ments, the arrangements for eating and sleeping, the provisions for recreation, the 
supply and care of clothing, home gardening, domestic animals and family subsistence. 
Serious efforts should be made to recognize all that is good in the existing system 
of home life in Africa. Then comparisons with the standards and facilities of more 
civilized homes would follow, and elements which can be adapted for the normal 
development of primitive homes could be ascertained. While it is obvious that home 
activities naturally center about the life of women it is urged that the responsibilities 
of men as fathers and boys as members of the home should be emphatically recognized 
in such a survey. The arbitrary powers of the man and the servility of woman in 
primitive society are both antagonistic to the realization of the standards of a 
civilized home. 


Methods for Education in Home Activities 


There remains then the organization of methods and activities to educate primitive 
society in the dignity and essential value of the home. All the machinery of the school 
and every influence of education should contribute to the formation of a right mental 
attitude, giving to the home a primary place among all the institutions of the commu- 
nity. Here again, while the training of girls and women naturally holds a central 
position in education pertaining to home activities, there should be adequate provision 
of education for the boys and the men as to the importance of the home and their 
responsibility for its maintenance and development. The elements of this educa- 
tion have already been mentioned. But, further, every educational objective— 
character development, hygiene, recreation, agricultural and mechanical interest 


28 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


and skill—directly or indirectly connected with the welfare of the home must be 
presented in relation to it. 

The four spheres of educational influence described in other sections of this chapter 
are strikingly applicable in their relation to home training. In view of the all inclu- 
sive significance of the home to society, it is essential that the education shall make 
use of every available agency. 

(1) All the representatives of civilization, whether government officials, mission- 
aries, settlers or traders, have necessarily exerted a tremendous influence on the Native 
conception of the home. The Natives have seen the foreign houses and their con- 
veniences. They have noted the relation of husband and wife, of children to parents, 
of children to each other. They have seen and have been attracted by European 
clothing. There is no doubt that many—though by no means all—of these influences 
have been for good. It was inevitable that the transfer of housing and clothing 
and other physical elements of the home from the civilization of temperate zones 
to primitive and tropical Africa should have disregarded and displaced much of the 
good in the primitive system. There has been thoughtless and often ludicrous 
imitation of European manners and especially of European dress. 

In view of the inevitable influence exerted on the home by Europeans in Africa, 
especially among educated or partly educated Natives, it is most essential that educa- 
tion shall take cognizance of this fact and do everything possible to direct the influence 
into helpful channels. School officers and teachers should at any rate order their 
home activities so that the African youth may be guided aright in their ideas and 
habits relating to the home. In recent years considerable thought has been given 
in the West to housing and clothing and other necessities of life in the tropics. It 
is urged that educators shall not only avail themselves of the best of these adaptations, 
but that they shall seek to improve upon them by every possible recognition of the 
good elements in Native customs. The teachers’ daily contact with Native life 
should enable them to profit by the centuries of Native experience. 

(2) The institutional activities of the school should demonstrate the value of all 
that has been urged with regard to the ideals of home life. Dormitories and hostels, 
and the arrangements for sleeping and eating, furnish the best school opportunities 
for realizing these ideals. They should therefore be organized in accordance with 
sound principles of home training. This does not mean the building of elaborate 
structures after the order of schools in Europe or America. On the contrary, the 
simple character of Native buildings and customs should, so far as possible, be repro- 
duced. This applies equally to arrangements for sleeping and eating. Care should 
be taken to avoid the two extremes now prevalent in many parts of Africa—the one 
of wholesale transfer of European facilities, and the other the complete acceptance 
of Native methods. 

(3) The curriculum of every school should provide time for the study of home 
activities and participation in them. Whatever else the content of such a course 
may be, it should primarily convince the pupil that understanding of home life is 
an essential of education. It is as true of this subject as of agriculture and industry 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 29 


that its non-literary quality has caused pupils to overlook its importance. The 
teaching of cooking and sewing, household arts and the care of children provide ample 
opportunity for the training of Native girls and women in home activities. Even 
though opportunities for the instruction of boys and men with regard to the 
home are not so direct, they may be found in village handicraft, gardening, economic 
contribution to the support of the home, purity of life and conversation and 
healthful discipline. : 

(4) In a sense the whole school may be regarded as an expansion of home life. 
Public addresses and sermons should inspire the pupils with a genuine regard for the 
home, and for womanhood as the center of the home and as an essential to the 
community. The relationship of teachers to pupils and teachers to each other should 
express the mutual helpfulness of the home. There should be the give and take, the 
exchange of criticisms and encouragements, the sharing of joys and sorrows and 
cooperation in all undertakings. All the objectives of education should here be 
combined, not only in verbal advocacy but in activities that have something of the 
unity and intimacy of the home. 

It is hoped that what has been written in presentation and advocacy of home 
activities as objectives of education has made clear the elements of home life and their 
relation to general education. The following quotation from the experience of a 
woman missionary* in East Central Africa, with a living consciousness of home, 
health and womanhood in community life, is comprehensive, real and afire with 
conviction : 


We have to emphasize the moral responsibility of Christian parents for the proper upbringing of 
their families. They must be led to realize the importance of having a house with two or three rooms. 
In this way they can bring up their family under their own roof, shielded from constant association 
with undesirable companions, kept from close contact with foul dances and public beer drinkings, 
sent regularly to school, and accustomed to Christian worship in private as well as in public. It is 
obvious how desirable it is that in all this the husband should have his wife’s intelligent sympathy 
and cooperation. It is more than ever necessary where, as often happens, he must go to a labor 
center to acquire the money necessary to pay his hut tax, clothe his family and provide them with 
school fees and books, so that for months at a time his wife is left responsible for looking after the 
family. 

While the opening up of the country has led men to seek education or find employment in labor 
centers, thus opening their eyes and enlarging their ideas, the women of Central Africa continue to 
pursue their dull routine of tasks in their villages, practically unaffected by all the changes taking 
place around them. 

Nothing proved so great an asset in establishing intimacy with these primitive women as mother- 
hood. Such a great experience in common swept away the minor differences between white woman 
and black, for the elemental things of life mean very much to them. The tremendous missionary 
value of a white baby (‘‘ our little sister born in our country ”’) among a primitive people in breaking 
down the barriers of tongue and color was proved. ‘Their interest in her growth and progress gave 
abundant opportunities for discussion of child life, and made it possible to demonstrate triumphantly 
in practice theories they had formerly rejected as impracticable. 

Various methods have been tried in seeking to find those that best lent themselves to the end we 


* Mrs. Donald Fraser, of Loudon, Nyasaland, in the International Review of Missions, July, 
1914, pp. 456-69. 


30 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


had in view—the social and moral elevation of the women. One was village visiting—literally visiting 
the village—for the village, not the family, is the social unit, and the women do their work in groups 
in the open air. It is easy enough to collect a crowd of women and children, but though it is useful 
in establishing friendliness there must be something more definite to follow it up. Village work is 
useful in personal canvassing for the women’s school. Such a school is really practical in its outcome. 
It aims at carrying on the education of the women till they learn to put their knowledge to practical 
use and become daily Bible students. A practical domestic economy course is also given, comprising 
lessons in sewing, washing and sick cookery, and simple talks on hygiene or public health, and the 
treatment of simple diseases. There is crying need for such teaching. In a country where almost 
every village has its cattle kraal and where fowls and eggs are plentiful, their one idea of invalid diet 
for a person unable to face their thick maize porridge is a thin water gruel variation of the same— 
unsaltened and unsweetened. To a large extent the high mortality in illness and the chronic ulcers 
that make life a burden to many are due to malnutrition arising from ignorance of food values. 

Using only native clay utensils and clean pieces of stick instead of spoons and forks, the school 
women are taught to prepare beaten-up eggs, custards, and milk foods sweetened with honey. 
Nothing is used that they cannot procure for themselves. Practical demonstration is given of the 
palatable nature of the dishes prepared, when the pupils’ babies are turned loose upon them. The 
preparation of sago and arrowroot, the making of syrup from sweet cane, and the baking of scones and 
cakes from native flour are also demonstrated for the benefit of go-ahead housewives. As civilization 
spreads and their menfolk working at labor centers get accustomed to European foods, we must 
have the women capable of producing a variety of palatable dishes if we are to combat the tendency 
so common in Africans to waste an entirely disproportionate amount of their earnings on tinned 
European foodstuffs. 

All that we seek to teach the women can be far more systematically and thoroughly impressed on 
the girls, but to do this effectively a boarding department and a lady devoting practically all her time 
to them is necessary. As each should be individually influenced, a dozen or so of the most promising 
and brightest girls are selected from the village schools, and spend the three or four years before 
marriage with the dona (white woman). Theory and practice are combined in all their training. 
After learning sick cookery, they are expected to provide food for any lying ill in the station, and to 
prepare “bottles” for any motherless baby. We try to make nothing in the accommodation 
provided for them, or in their ways of living on the station, foreign to the habits of village life, and 
yet aim at raising and refining it all just sufficiently to send them out to homes of their own with ideals 
attainable through diligence and effort. Could such work be multiplied throughout all our stations 
the right type of wife might be found for our teachers. 

Medical skill cannot always be available in Africa. It is consequently of great importance to teach 
the people to help themselves, both in the prevention of diseases by observing sanitary precautions 
and in knowing how to treat the simpler forms of disease. Patient, long-continued education is 
necessary to rid the people of their superstitious beliefs regarding illness and to combat the fatalistic 
attitude they are apt to adopt when confronted by it. 

Sometimes information must be given from the pulpit to the large Sunday audiences, but it must 
also be reiterated in dispensary, in school, to the chiefs and headmen of the villages, till familiarity 
with the fact has bred belief. At hospital the same aim should be kept in view. A patient with itch 
receives along with his ointment a short explanation of the nature of the trouble, the risk of infecting 
others, and the way to disinfect clothing by boiling. Al] treatment is on simplelines. The cause and 
nature of the patient’s illness is explained as far as possible to the friends, and the effect we are seeking 
to produce by treatment. When a case of poisoning comes in, and an emetic has to be given, we 
prepare it before them, giving soap and water rather than some mysterious medicine out of a bottle. 
When epidemics arise, the unaffected have learned to isolate themselves by erecting temporary dwel- 
lings at some distance from the stricken village. In season and out of season the women are taught 
to regard flies, mosquitoes, house-ticks, unboiled water, etc., as enemies deadlier to human life than 
snakes and wild beasts. Lectures on personal and village hygiene are given to all teachers trained at 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 31 


our institutions, but it is not superfluous to repeat such warnings to the average villager. If the 
Native teacher repeats to the women what they have already heard from the dona, the chance is 
greater that they believe and act on it. 

Infant life is being saved by demonstrating how to bring up orphans on cows’ milk. Formerly 
their one substitute for a child’s natural nourishment was a water gruel—so useless that one could 
scarcely wonder that, feeling the futility of the attempt, they often buried the living child with the 
dead mother. We might infinitely multiply examples, showing the scope there is for medical work 
along educational lines. 

Though these efforts have been unsystematized and interrupted by furloughs and other circum- 
stances, the response has been sufficiently encouraging to make us long to see such work thoroughly 
organized, single and married women complementing each other’s labors. Among indications of 
advance we find that houses of two and three rooms, lighted and ventilated and furnished, and with 
brick fireplaces built in, are commencing to replace the ordinary hut, and are becoming real homes. 
These houses are almost invariably kept in good order and with clean yards. 

Greater intelligence and more careful rearing is making the monogamist’s family larger than was 
usual with the polygamist. A number of years ago we took a census in a small district, and discovered 
that the average African woman bore six or seven children, of whom two outlived childhood. In 
my class roll-book to-day, among the first twenty names of women who are young enough to have had 
families baptized and entered in the church registers—since their own or their husband’s baptism— 
I find the average of living children is over four. Some of these women are quite young and have only 
borne one or two children yet. Among the older ones I find one with eight, two with seven, and two 
with six living children. The total abstinence from beer practised by the Christians has doubtless 
a good deal to do with this result. 

Growing knowledge is overcoming the superstitions which have had so strong a hold among the 
women. Cruel customs which choke the springs of womanly love and pity are disappearing as 
Christian light spreads. 

Appreciation of the benefit of education is slowly increasing among the women. Their school is 
no longer composed of old ladies wrestling with their syllables, but is showing an increasing per- 
centage of young mothers of families who seek knowledge partly for its own sake, and partly because 
we have impressed on them the necessity of being educated if they do not wish their children, who 
regularly attend school, to despise their mothers on account of their ignorance. 


RECREATION 


The study of community needs is revealing the emphatic importance of recrea- 
tion as an element in education. The play instinct of children and adults, the 
universal desire for amusements, and the immense amount of money, energy and 
thought devoted to various forms of recreation are now recognized by civilized society 
as expressing an instinct essential to human welfare. What was formerly thought by 
some to be the foolishness of youth, or a persistent form of “‘ original sin,” is now 
regarded as in large measure natural and desirable. Students of criminology are 
learning that much of the correctional work of prisons could be avoided by proper 
provision for play. Hygienists are recommending play and amusements for the 
building up of the body. Psychologists suggest various forms of play for the quicken- 
ing of mental processes. Directors of community welfare depend largely upon the 
playground, musical organizations and games, both indoor and outdoor, for the 
cultivation of morale. This is especially true in times of stress and excitement, when 
the community life needs to be lifted to high levels of thought and action. 


32 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Among primitive people, play occupies relatively a much greater part of life than 
in civilized communities. While some of their amusements are helpful, others are 
degrading to body, mind and character. The improvement of many tribes in 
Africa is impossible until the degrading influences of their pleasures are corrected or 
eliminated. Moonlight orgies and other forms of sensuous excesses, well known in 
many parts of Africa, undermine the physical strength, thwart mental growth, and 
dull or destroy the moral sense. The influence of education and religion will be 
largely nullified so long as the degenerating power of harmful amusements is permitted 
to continue. All concerned with colonial welfare, whether European or Native, 
whether missionary, settler, trader or government official, will find their efforts 
hampered by the demoralizing results of games and pleasures that are physically or 
emotionally enervating. Excesses of sex, alcoholic drink, and intense forms of 
emotion too frequent among primitive people directly or indirectly affect the peace 
and progress of the colony. 

It is therefore imperative, in the interests of African and European alike, that 
Native amusements shall be corrected and improved. The problem of distinguishing 
the degrading elements from those that may be refined and used for the healthful recrea- 
tion of the people is not always easy to solve. It is important to recognize that the 
value of healthful games and other forms of recreation is by no means limited to the 
prevention of evil and the correction of abnormal conditions. The positive and con- 
structive influence of proper amusements among primitive people will probably be 
relatively greater than in civilized countries. The simplicity of their social organiza- 
tion, their comparative freedom from responsibility, and their habits of play all 
prepare for the full influence of healthful amusements in building up their physique, 
quickening their minds and developing desirable qualities of character. 


Survey of Recreation in the Community 


The first step towards a consciousness of the community needs for recreation is a 
survey. The inquiry should include every phase of community life. As the amuse- 
ments in primitive society are usually connected with tribal ceremonies, the first 
questions may well be related to the significance and value of these. The ceremonies 
will probably include a variety of activities, such as dancing, games, feasting, songs 
and tribal rites. Judgment as to their significance must be made on the basis of a 
thorough understanding of tribal history and usage. The application of the stan- 
dards of civilized society may easily do real injustice to the purposes, motives and 
influence of the ceremonies. What appears indecent, harmful or foolish may change 
its guise when considered in the light of tribal history. Justification on a merely 
historical basis may, however, easily be overdone: The final test must be the effect 
upon the welfare of the people and upon their possibilities of progress. 

The inquiry will also endeavor to differentiate the amusements of children and 
adults, of men and women, of families, of labor groups and trekking parties. The 
effects of the various forms of amusements should be analyzed according to their 
influence upon the body, mind and morals. Some comparison should also be made 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 33 


between the games of civilized peoples and those of the primitive tribes, to ascertain 
the possibility of adapting helpful games from other parts of the world. The study 
of the possibilities of Native music and art will require both patience and skill, for 
judgment must be based upon a thorough and sympathetic understanding. There 
are sufficient evidences of unique beauty in folk music and art to warrant further 
study. Inquiry in these directions will be of great assistance in conserving the best 
elements of African life. The recreational possibilities of ordinary activities of daily 
_ life such as work, education and religion should also be considered. The idea of 
recreation is too frequently dissociated from them. This has resulted in a depreciation 
of the pleasure values of these daily activities. The farmer’s appreciation of the 
processes of the soil and of plant life may well give real pleasure and inspiration. 
The contemplation of his handiwork by the mechanic is well known to give him 
satisfaction and joy. Work well done, whether agricultural, handicraft or literary, 
has recreational values that are too frequently overlooked in the rush of civilized 
society after specialized forms of amusements that are disappointingly artificial. 
In the survey of community recreations, it is therefore important to ascertain the 
contribution that may be made by the daily task. 


Methods for Education in Recreation 


The impressions and results of community recreations assembled by the study 
described above wiil immediately suggest methods and means for the encouragement 
of ideas and habits of sound and healthful recreations. The school staff will see to it 
that the Native youth understand the place of recreation in their education. First of 
all every part of the school will be expected to make its contribution in this direction. 
Dormitories will be constructed and furnished with the recreational needs of the pupils 
inmind, This does not mean elaborate buildings and decorations, but it does mean 
that whatever of beauty can be provided in the appearance of the building, whether 
inside or outside, will be supplied. Pupils will be taught to maintain an order that 
will contribute to their sense of the beautiful. Possibly the most esthetic sleeping 
rooms seen in Africa were those of a school whose facilities were limited to huts of 
dark brown clay susceptible of polish. Similarly the playgrounds and the gardens 
may be made to help to fill the pupil with appreciation of the friendliness and beauty 
of nature. 

The instruction in music will draw upon the best of Native folk lore and song as 
well as upon the simple forms of Western music, and may one day utilize the inspiring 
musical achievements of civilization. Pupils will be taught to sing at work and at 
play. Songs of service, ‘faith, victory and joy should be selected. The natural 
outburst of the Native in innocent and playful folk dances should be encouraged. 
This, of course, suggests the importance of training the Native youth to differentiate 
very clearly the debasing from the innocent and joyful elements of their songs and 
dances. It is notable that Native ministers are often the most emphatic in their 
opposition to Native amusements. This is true not only in Africa but among the 
leaders of primitive people in other parts of the world. Their convictions are some- 


84 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


times the result of their intimate knowledge of the degenerating influences of Native 
amusements, but often have their source in a narrow conception of recreation im- © 
parted to them by the missionaries. Whatever the reason for their views, there can 
be no question as to the importance of teaching them to distinguish between the good 
and the bad so that the best may be conserved. 

The selection of both indoor and outdoor games should have regard for the physical, 
mental and moral needs of the Native people. Tribes that excel in running and Jump- 
ing should be given a variety of games so that they may be able both to maintain . 
their natural skill and to supplement this skill by physical achievements in other 
directions. It must always be remembered that recreation, whether physical or 
psychological, has the responsibility of supplementing, and thereby developing, a 
more comprehensive physique and mind. The tendency to irregularity of activity 
requires games that correct this lack. Impulsive qualities of mind should be corrected 
by games that require deliberation and accuracy. The excessive sex interest of 
tropical people can be largely controlled by well-organized games that develop physical 
strength and a desire to excel in the intricacies of such games. The emphasis already 
given to essentially Western games such as football is fully justified by their success 
in diverting the interest of the youth to more healthful ideals and actions. 

The experience of civilized countries should be used as fully as possible in enriching 
the life of the Native people in recreation. Whatever is adopted should, of course, 
be adapted. Every effort should be made to enable the Native people to understand 
the recreative contributions of their daily life and activities. They should be taught 
the joy of a well organized home, however simple. They should be helped to see the 
beauty and inspiration of growing grain and the pleasure of handicraft and of domestic 
and agricultural work. Much has been done in recent years to institute community 
games and pleasures. The communal life of Africa affords ample opportunity for 
such extensions of group play. Here is a rich field for experiment, for it is em- 
phatically believed that the influence of community recreations may be used to 
recreate a tribal life too strongly centered in the selfishness and despotism of a chief, 
so that the needs, responsibilities and rights of every individual may be amply 
recognized. 

The realization of this conviction is strikingly forecast in the dramatic experiences 
related herewith by a missionary in the heart of East Africa ;* 

If the influence of Christianity is to permeate all social life and not to be cabined and confined to a 
purely religious realm, we had to recognize that not only were the industrial and worship habits of 
the people to be raised, but recreations and leisure time must be sweetened. Dancing is inbred in 
African nature. They dance when they are merry and they dance,when they are sad. Dances 
express their anger and their passion, their joy and contentment. I have seen a man rise and dance 
after a full meal just because the glow of contented life was in him. After a fight with a wild beast 
he will dance in graceful pantomime the whole action of the struggle. When the sun goes down and 
the earth cools all the children of the village frisk and dance in the energy that has come to them. 


I have even seen a fervid preacher dance in the warmth of his appeal. Why should this natural 
outlet of African feelings be blocked or made the monopoly of the devil ? 


* Dr. Donald Fraser, of Loudon, Nyasaland, in the International Review of Missions, 
Jan. 1921, pp. 110-7. 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 35 


I shall describe one evening under more natural conditions. 

At the close of a heavy day’s marching and teaching I sat at my tent door. Dinner was over, a 
bright moon shining, and as my tent was pitched in the school ground a little distance from the 
village, all around was still and lonely. I lay back in my chair depressed with sheer weariness and 
dreading the long hours till bedtime. 

Presently the sound of a stream of children flowing along the bush path from the village came 
tumbling and rumbling through the night air. By and by a crowd of youngsters was swarming in 
the open space before my tent. They sat down on the ground, shy and suppressed, before me, 

** Aren’t you going to play ?” I asked. 

““ May we ?” they replied, knowing well what my answer would be, for the reputation of evening 
sport had preceded me. 

Soon they were on their feet ; the boys in one corner of the playground, the girls in another. They 
began with long dancing rings, that whirled faster and faster until they broke apart in their speed, 
not unlike the ring and dance games of little school girls at home. Then I called for a game which we 
knew as “ London Bridge ” in our childhood. Boys and girls played together, running underneath 
the clasped hands of the two eldest. The tug-of-war followed between the captured sides, and then 
a long pantomime performance when the children with interlocked hands above their heads repre- 
sented ripe and unripe pumpkins. 

The noise of play had attracted the village seniors, and groups of women and men stood looking on 
and instructing the young people in the rules of the games. Now in the heathen villages the older 
women are the leaders in the vilest dances. I have seen them break into the children’s rings and 
teach them and incite them to more and more loathsome posturing. But this night I have the 
Christian women with me suggesting forgotten games, guiding the merry folks how to follow the rules. 

One or two pretty games with haunting melodies are started. The children do not know them. 
With much clamour and rehearsing the elders finally get them fairly on their way and the game goes 
through, the fun increasing every minute. 

We are now ready for the dances. The boys form a ring by themselves and have hunting and 
war dances in imitation of their seniors. Men stand thick on the outer edge of the ring cheering the 
successful performers. Sometimes seized by the spirit of the fun they burst through the crowd and 
give a model dance themselves. 

The girls too have taken their stations and are busy with an endless variety of dance games ; 
now they squat and leap like frogs, again they intertwine their right legs and dance in a rotating 
circle on one leg. The slow, rather uninteresting wedding dance is given ; then more vigorous solo 
or double dances within the circle. From both rings a perpetual chorus is going on vociferously to 
the accompaniment of rhythmical clapping of hands. Once or twice in the excitement of the dance 
actions which are not pretty or pure are attempted, but the girls stop them. These are not allowed 
to-night. The fun must be as clean as God’s moonlight. 

All my weariness has gone long ago, a light heart and constant laughter have been given to us all, 
and through the evening till nearly nine o’clock the sport goes on more and more merrily. At last 
the time to sleep has come. A word from me and immediately the noise is quietened and all squat 
on the ground beside me. I speak for a little on the joy of life that God has given us and how clean 
the taste of pure sport is. I ask the Christian men and women to guide the evening games that 
nothing may be done that Christ would not like to look on. Then we sing a hymn, have prayer, 
closing with the Lord’s Prayer and Benediction, and the crowd goes off crying to me, “* Sleep in 
peace,” and silence closes down on us till nothing but the night sounds of the wood are heard. 


AGRICULTURE 


The first step towards agricultural instruction as an educational aim is the 
development of a real appreciation of its importance in Africa. One of the 
most unfortunate results of the education so far given there has been the depreciation 


36 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of agriculture in Native opinion. However unintentional and incidental this result 
has been, it is nevertheless real. The sin has been rather of omission than of com- 
mission. The school program has been so exclusively devoted to the literary and 
other conventional elements of the school curriculum as to cause the Native people 
to think that agriculture was not really important. The responsibility for this 
unfortunate result cannot be placed upon the school alone. Modern civilization 
and the Christian Church must share the responsibility. The decennial census enum- 
erations of Europe and America have been giving new confirmation of the tendency 
to desert rural communities for urban areas. There is probably no more vital problem 
of education than that of helping society the world over to understand the primary 
importance of agriculture to human welfare. 

It is most significant that the International Education Board, recently organized 
in New York through the generosity of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., should have 
selected agriculture and science as their first international endeavors. The thought 
of this Board is not for the economic value of agriculture only, but much more for 
its influence upon every phase of life. Younger countries, like the United States, 
Canada, Australia and the Union of South Africa, with their vast expanses of culti- 
vable land, are naturally making more provision for agricultural education. Several 
influences have contributed to the importance of agricultural education in these 
countries. ‘They are less bound by educational traditions ; they desire to make use 
of their great agricultural resources ; they are realizing that a contented and prosperous 
rural population is most essential to the normal development of the nation. The 
Department of Agriculture of the United States is among the most interesting 
and generally helpful agencies of the Government. Its bureaux are concerned with 
a remarkable variety of social activities. There are scientific bureaux with officials 
for the investigation of soil, plant, animal and insect life; others are engaged in 
economic researches relating to the exchange and distribution of farm products ; 
still others are concerned with farm management and the extension of farm knowledge 
and practice into every part of the country. There is also a strong bureau for the 
investigation of the preparation and use of food products. The extension activities, 
through farm and home demonstrations, are among the most striking and effective 
educational activities in the world. The men demonstrators who have specialized 
in the practical problems of the farm, and the women demonstrators who are pro- 
fessionally equipped to assist in the improvement of the home, are exerting a peculiarly 
significant influence on rural life in America. 

The African Natives are relatively far more dependent on agriculture than any people 
in the world. Agricultural education should correspondingly receive large considera- 
tion in the school plans. While the Native people have learned much through 
centuries of experience, there is much more to be learned through scientific study 
of the possibilities of the soil. The radical changes as regards land tenure and conse- 
quent limitation to smaller acreages ; the new conditions of marketing, additional 
wants of individual and family life; the demands of Government for taxes, and 
numerous other changes brought about by the entrance of Western civilization into 


PLATE V 


“UOISSIWITHO,) [BUOT}LONpPH oy,Z, (2) £ osanN Aareuolssyy Ysmpomg VW (p) ‘ epueseg 
‘s1oyovaT, UOUOAA DATZLN (9) £ UOISSIP SSIMG OY} JO SIOJSVG VALYEN pue pounsr Lruszy “Py (q) 
£ gop) JoMsoy IPT “AC, ‘(Qysia) Avammy_ “aq_ ‘(407U99) SMUT “ICT? puepeseAN UL SuBto}oA (7) 


VOINUAV HO SINVAYHS 





PLATE VI 


“‘vAUDY S1OA VV daqhyy [estg Surkaqq (p) £ eisopoyy usoyyNog *BMRITSOGULO(T 
‘PP evoyy (9) ¢ vrussdqy ‘soneuvrs) IATFEN (q) ‘ upuesy ‘eonqg pue u0z}09 (7) 


WLYVa AL HO SLINUA ATANIM 





EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 37 
Africa, all combine to create a perplexing agricultural situation which is baffling the 
Natives. In addition to these real discouragements to agriculture, there are the entice- 
ments of large industrial operations maintained by European capital. The lure of 
new experiences, the desire to share in the activities of the Europeans in control, are 
attracting large proportions of the Natives from the soil to the artificialities and 
dangers of labor compounds. 
~~ It seems obvious, therefore, that schools should make every possible provision for 
agricultural education. However extensive the Native experience and knowledge may 
be of soil cultivation, and however limited may be the agricultural knowledge of the 
school staff, it should be possible for them to bring to the Native a sense of the vital 
importance of agriculture as an element in education. It is imperative that schools 
shall cease to give the impression that knowledge of the three R’s and of the subjects 
usually in the curriculum is of more importance than agricultural knowledge. 


Survey of Agriculture in the Community 

A careful survey of the gardening and farming operations of the Native people 
will be most enlightening to the teacher. Such a survey will doubtless have many 
surprises for the observer. The Natives’ knowledge of plant life, their ingenuity in 
dealing with soil and weather conditions, their acquaintance with the seasons, their 
methods of protecting the crops from pests, their industry and the amount of 
their labor, awaken a much needed respect for Native ability. The survey should be 
continued until a real knowledge of the community needs in agriculture has been 
achieved. The cultivation of the soil in gardens and farms, the rearing of domestic 
animals, the harvesting and care of both vegetable and animal products, the marketing 
and costs, the division of labor, the cooperation of families in work and responsi- 
bility, and every essential phase of agricultural activities should be observed with ail 
possible care. The types of questions to be asked are suggested herewith : 

What crops are cultivated? What are the quantities ? Distinguish proportion of 
soil products for food purposes and for markets. Are crops sufficient for the food 
needs of the family? Are the vegetables sufficiently varied to produce the best 
results as food ? Do the crops for marketing supply a sufficient income? Is there a 
tendency to permit crops which bring in money to limit or exclude the cultivation of 
crops required for food? Are the market opportunities sufficient ? Is there any 
form of cooperation in the production, sale or milling of the crops? To what extent 
are farm implements used ? Does the Government or any private agency give assist- 
ance to farmers? Has the Colonial Agricultural Department studied the soil or 
marketing possibilities of the neighborhood? Has the cultivation of any of the 
large commercial crops, such as coffee or cotton, been encouraged ? If so, have the 
methods and results of the propaganda been helpful to the Native people? Whatis 
the prevailing form of land tenure ? What and how many domestic animals does the 
average family have? What uses are made of these domestic animals? Is any 
effort made to improve the breed of stock ? What care is used in the raising of the 
animals ? Is any effort made to prevent animal diseases? Is there any move- 


c 


38 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


ment to improve village life? What proportion of the field work is done by the men, 
by the women, and by the children? To what extent are bad communications 
hindering the development of agriculture ? 

Inquiries made in different parts of Africa indicate some of the results of the 
surveys that may be mentioned. These tentative observations may be of value as 
suggestions of the uses to be made of facts to be obtained : 

(a) Natives have a considerable skill in, and knowledge of, some agricultural 
methods. In parts they have good knowledge of the rotation of crops. But they 
Jamentably lack in other respects information that would add greatly to their 
prosperity. 

(b) While many devote a considerable amount of hard work to their crops, the 
failure to produce adequately is more frequently due to irregularity of cultivation 
than to a lack of knowledge. 

(c) The extension and improvement of agriculture by the Natives are not sufficiently 
stimulated by market facilities and the creation of Native wants, such as better 
housing, which would require a larger income. So long as the community wants are 
satisfied, there is little or no incentive to extra labor. 

(d) There is always a strong tendency to permit market crops which can be sold 
for cash to limit and almost exclude food crops. The results of this movement have 
been disastrous in a number of colonies. Much of the money so gained has been spent 
uselessly. The neglect of food crops has necessitated the purchase of food, often at 
exorbitant rates. A drop in the market price of the money crop, or a failure of that 
crop, has in some cases caused great distress. The correction of this mistake is 
obviously in the creation of a conviction that both food and money crops are desirable. 
It is also important to teach the Native people how to make wise use of their increased 
income. 

(e) Natives should be taught to make use of a greater variety of foods and especially 
those required for a “* balanced ration.” 

(f) There is much carelessness and waste in the rearing and use of domestic animals. 
The irresponsibility of primitive groups is sometimes strikingly evident in their 
indifference to the needs of their animals. 

(g) The limitation of Natives to reserves is calling for new methods of cultivation. 
It is no longer possible to cultivate new land free from insect pests and rich in its 
original fertility. 

(hk) The cultivation of the soil and the care of domestic animals are despised in 
primitive society as the work of women and children. The first step in the cure of 
this unfortunate attitude is the creation of a tribal sentiment impelling all members 
of the family to share in the most important responsibility of family and tribe. 
Gradually the women and children will have new responsibilities in the home and 
school and will therefore be unable to meet all agricultural claims. 

It is evident that the school system has both a great responsibility and a real oppor- 
tunity in the agricultural education of the Native people. Even a limited survey 
of the African community reveals not only the wealth of soil resources and the 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 39 


promising beginnings in agriculture already made by the people, but also the diffi- 
culties to be overcome and the great possibilities to be achieved. The success of 
some mission schools in developing interest and skill in agriculture is sufficient to 
guarantee the success of well-planned instruction and practice. These schools have 
taught the Natives to plant trees, as will be recorded in the succeeding chapters ; to 
increase the productivity of their gardens ; to introduce a variety of food and market 
crops ; to find markets for their produce ; toimprove the breed of domestic animals ; 
to make gardening, farming and stock raising profitable and, above all, to dignify 
the occupation. 


Methods for Education in Agriculture 

The essentials of an agricultural education are in some respects quite simple, but in 
others complicated and difficult. Consciousness of the importance of the subject 
will impel the teacher to begin as soon as possible the process of education without 


waiting for an expert staff or a large equipment. The following order of presentation 
is suggested for the consideration of the teacher : 


(1) To develop respect for the cultivation of the soil by showing the pupils 
the dependence of humanity upon products of the soil, not only in Africa but 
throughout the world. Reference may be made to whatever success the Natives 
have already achieved in gardening and agriculture. Comparison with other school 
activities will contribute to the appreciation. With younger pupils, simple experi- 
ments relating to seed growth may be performed in the classroom, thereby helping 
the pupil to obtain some idea of the processes of plant life. These verbal and simpler 
illustrations will specially aid teachers who are not equipped scientifically. 

(2) To show that regularity, thoroughness and foresight will greatly improve farm- 
ing, even with existing methods. 

(3) Teachers with more or less scientific training will proceed as soon as possible 
to the simplest scientific elements of the soil and of plant life. This will not only 
interest the Native but it will enable him to work more intelli gently. 

(4) To transmit some of the results of experience and research in countries far 
advanced in agriculture so that they may be adapted to African needs. 

(5) To explain the economic laws that should determine the selection of crops to 
be grown and the methods of marketing. 

(6) To discuss the conservation of the soil, crops and labor. 

(7) To encourage and organize the planting of trees, the replacing of those that 
die, and the conservation of forest from wasteful use. The chapters on Nyasaland 
and Kenya Colony will furnish stimulating illustrations. 

(8) To show that the soil is the most valuable physical resource of the world and 
that its cultivation is among the most significant activities of humanity. In religious 
phraseology cultivation of the soil may be said to be cooperating with God. 

The realization of these aims in the school requires the use of every school activity 
that can possibly be enlisted for the purpose. The staff must have a genuine belief 
in agricultural education. The maintenance of gardens and farms and the rearing 


40 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of domestic animals must be shown to be not only for the physical necessities of staff 
and pupils, but also as types of activity necessary to the welfare of the Native com- 
munity. Pupils should never be made to share in these activities as punishment 
or merely for the payment of expenses at the school. So sincere should be the interest 
in the activities that pupils will regard participation in them as a privilege. In one 
school visited on the West Coast the most effective punishment used in the institution 
was the refusal to permit the pupil to work in the garden. Forced agricultural 
labor for pupils who have already had hard work on the farm will obviously only 
deepen their dislike for it. The doctrine of interest in work is nowhere more applicable 
than in gardening, farming and tree-planting. 

The provision of scientific courses relating to soil processes and plant life should be 
made as soon as possible, for the higher grades of education and in the training of 
teachers. Agricultural equipment suited to the needs of the school and the com- 
munity is most desirable. It is advisable that the equipment shall not be elaborate 
or expensive. Many schools have delayed the introduction of equipment and even 
of agriculture because of their belief that costly equipment was essential. Other 
schools have actually failed because of their endeavor to use equipments beyond their 
needs and ability. The most essential requisite of all is a genuine belief in agriculture, 
a recognition of its vital contribution to the life of the community, a realization of 
its value in the physical, mental and even moral welfare of the Native people. The 
words of General Armstrong, that great apostle of real education, are applicable to the 
full in the education of the African people : 

The temporal salvation of the colored race for some time to come is to be won out of the ground. 
The Negro race will succeed or fail as it shall devote itself with energy to agriculture and mechanic 
arts or avoid these pursuits, and its teachers must be inspired with the spirit of hard work and 
acquainted with the ways that lead to material success. Teaching and farming go well together in 
the present condition of things. The teacher-farmer is the man for the times : he is essentially an 
educator throughout the year. 


INDUSTRIAL SKILL 


Industrial education is the response to the demand that education shall be 
adapted to the daily activities of the masses, to the large commercial and indus- 
trial operations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to the requirements 
of the notable developments of science. So intimately is industrial training related 
to the daily responsibilities of mechanics and other hand-workers as to have caused 
them at times to doubt its value and thus again to illustrate the saying that “ a pro- 
phet is not without honor except in his own country.” Education has been so long 
associated only with books and the art of expression as to seem strange and unknown 
when presented in the form of “‘ learning by doing ” or of the creative arts. It is little 
wonder that workers have been slow to recognize an education so different from the 
conventional forms even though the new form is so vital to their own welfare. With 
the increasing consciousness of social needs, civilized communities are insisting that 
education shall provide training for all the activities essential to human welfare. 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS A] 


Labor unions and industrial organizations are agreed in their demand for those 
elements of education that prepare the youth to undertake the responsibilities into 
which they are entering. Industrial and technical schools are increasing in number 
every year in both Europe and America. Nor is the movement due to a narrow and 
selfish economic interest in machinery and construction. It is inspired by a broad. 
conception of the intimate and real relation of industrial activities to the mental, 
moral and social progress of humanity. Comparison of the last two centuries with 
those preceding reveals the tremendous contribution of machinery not only to the 
prosperity but much more to the comfort and safety and happiness of humanity. 
The extension of privileges to the masses of the people is directly related to improved 
facilities of transportation and communication. The benefits of sanitation are now 
enjoyed by millions who, but for railways and roads and steamships, would still be 
subjected to the ravages of diseases. The advantages of education and religion 
are being carried to the ends of the earth by modern machinery. So real and so 
intimate is the relation of mechanical devices, such as the telegraph, the telephone, 
the wireless, electric and steam appliances, to all the social and altruistic organization 
of to-day as to give color to the belief that the one could scarcely exist without 
the other. 

The study of psychological processes is also revealing the educational value of 
industrial training. School activities seemed formerly to be based almost exclusively 
on the approach to the mind through the eye and the ear. Practical experience 
and psychology are demonstrating that the mind may be approached through the 
hand. Mental development through the innumerable hand processes of modern 
building and manufacturing has been real and effective. The elimination of these 
processes in recent years by machinery has been a real loss which education is now 
endeavoring to correct by introducing hand activities in the schools. Educators 
are convinced that the concrete and definite character of industrial and scientific 
education is necessary to supplement the abstract and indefinite quality of education 
through the printed page and oral instruction. 

It is evident that the value attaching to industrial education in Europe and 
America will be even greater in Africa. Educational approach to a people so different 
in language and customs will obviously be more clear and certain through the concrete 
and definite processes of industrial training than through reading and writing. Pupils 
may misunderstand words without being discovered by their teachers or realizing 
the mistakes themselves. They can scarcely escape their error or their neglect in the 
crookedness of a supposedly straight line, a circle that is incomplete, a table with 
unequal legs or a suit that does not fit. A pupil in tailoring remarked that the 
spoiling of a yard of cloth was a real loss, but that the misunderstanding of a page 
of history could easily be corrected another day. He thus attested his ability to 
understand his lessons in tailoring, but showed his lack of appreciation of the danger 
of misunderstanding history. He shares this inability not only with Africans but 
with many intelligent people in many parts of the world. It is this recognition of 
the need for what is concrete in education that is stimulating the introduction of 


42 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


laboratories into the schools and, what is even more important and more generally 
possible, insisting upon practice in meeting fundamental needs of the community 
under school and home conditions. 

This distinctly educational value of industrial training is enormously increased 
_ in Africa by the need for every form of industrial development. Primitive Africa 
lacks houses, roads, railroads, bridges, boats, all types of vehicles, farming implements, 
machinery, household utensils and an endless variety of things that may well be 
considered essential to modern civilization. The great physical resources of Africa 
must remain undeveloped until the industrial facilities are provided and skilled labor 
is available. The importation of skilled labor into Africa is neither possible nor 
justifiable as a permanent policy. The Native Africans must be taught to share this 
responsibility and in the course of time be prepared to undertake it all. There are 
sufficient examples of skilled Native workmen to prove that they can and will respond 
to opportunities for such training. 


Survey of Need for Industrial Education 


Consciousness of African needs for industrial training will be strengthened and 
directed by a survey of the industrial needs and possibilities of the community. Such 
a survey should be directed, first, to the discovery of the village conditions, and second, 
to loca] and colonial development. In the villages the inquiry should seek to ascertain 
the need for better housing, household utensils, farming implements, mechanical tools, 
simple vehicles to carry heavy loads, and clothing. Questions relating to many of 
these topics have been suggested in the sections on health, the home and agriculture. 
Comparison with other communities will suggest village industries, such as weaving, 
leather-work, basket-making, pottery, mat-making. The material needs of the village 
and these simple industries should furnish ample opportunities for handicraft that 
will be both educative and useful to the villages. Care should be taken not to 
encourage the production of goods of merely antiquarian or decorative interest 
to the neglect of those that are both educational and economically helpful. 

The survey of Native industry in relation to colonial development will assemble 
facts and statistics showing the need for skilled and semi-skilled workmen and 
for laborers required to construct, maintain and operate such commercial and indus- 
trial undertakings as railways, roads, telegraphs and telephones, motor service, boats, 
mines, manufacturing establishments. A study of these statistics, together with 
those showing the labor needs of the villages for agriculture and handicraft, and 
their comparison with the census enumeration of the population—if such exists— 
will provide a scientific basis for the formulation of a wise and accurate policy of 
education with due regard for the industrial, agricultural and other occupational 
needs of the colony. 

It is evident that industrial skill as an educational objective must be recognized 
in every part of the school system. The staff must be sufficiently conscious of the 
industrial needs to advocate the necessary training for the youth. Artificial dis- 
tinctions between teachers of handicrafts and teachers of literary subjects should he 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS 43 


abolished. Least of all should there be any toleration of a sense of superiority on 
the part of those whose duties are literary. The most effective preventative of such 
arrogance is, of course, the broad education of the industrial teachers. 

Building construction and repairs and the general material needs of the school 
should furnish considerable practice for the pupils. Such activities should be dignified 
not only by requiring that they be well done, but also by making it clear that they 
are as essentially educational as ordinary classroom work. Formal classes in manual 
training should be given every opportunity to relate their work to the actual needs of 
the community. Care should be taken not to permit the practical demands to limit 
or exclude the educational influence of the work attempted. It is most important 
that the pupils should be taught the real significance of industrial training to them and 
to the community. To this end, the instruction should, so far as possible, provide a 
knowledge of the simplest laws of physics and of mathematics relating to their work. 
Elementary economics should be drawn upon to explain the place of industry in the 
progress of society. Simple lessons in psychology and pedagogy should help to 
explain the value of industrial training as an educational process. The inspirational 
and social value of industrial education has never been more vividly stated than in 
the following words by General Armstrong : 


In all men, education is conditioned not alone on an enlightened head and a changed heart, but 
very largely on a routine of industrious habits, which is to character what the foundation is to the 
pyramid. The summit should glow with a divine light, interfusing and qualifying the whole mass, 
but it should never be forgotten that it is only upon a foundation of regular daily activities that 
there can be any firie and permanent upbuilding. Morality and industry usually go together. 
Subtract hard work from life, and in a few months all will have gone to pieces. Labor, next to 
the grace of God in the heart, is the greatest promoter of morality, the greatest power for civilization. 
Didactic and dogmatic work has little to do with the formation of character, which is our point. 
This is done by making the school a little world in itself ; mingling hard days’ work in field or shop 
with social pleasures, making success depend on behavior rather than on study work. School life 
should be like real life. 


HicHer EDUCATION 


Advanced technical, agricultural and teacher training, and _ professional 
knowledge of medicine, law and theology are as essential to the complete school 
system in East Africa as they are in any other part of the world. It is, of course, true 
that the present need for this stage of education is very limited. There are now 
only two schools south of Egypt and the Sahara that have any claim to recognition 
as colleges. One is Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the other is 
Fort Hare Native College in the Union of South Africa. Even the number of secondary 
schools is almost negligible. Indeed there are no schools for Natives in East Africa 
which in relation to Western standards can be properly described as secondary schools. 
Nor are there professional schools of either secondary or college standard. While 
a small number of schools offer agricultural training, the real agricultural schools 
may be counted on the fingers of one hand, and these are elementary in standard. 
Trades are taught in a few schools. Teachers are trained in a considerable number of 


Ad EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


schools, but comparatively few offer well-planned instruction and practice for the 
preparation of teachers. 

It is evident, therefore, that facilities for advanced education, even of secondary 
grade, are inadequate. The demand for such education cannot long be delayed. 
Already a few Native pupils requiring special training for technical, agricultural or 
teaching service, as well as those who desire to enter the professions, have gone to 
Kurope or America to continue their education. The necessity to do this is a serious 
handicap to Native Africans who have the capacity for advancement. The cost 
is almost prohibitive, the break from all African surroundings is unfortunate, and 
the entrance into the perplexing and conflicting tides of European or American life is 
fraught with danger to mind and morals. That a number of Africans, especially 
from South and West Africa, have successfully passed through the ordeal is greatly | 
to their credit. No one knows, however, the price they have paid in physical en- 
durance and in mental and moral strain. Nor does anyone know how many young 
Africans have in the process been lost to a life of service for Africa. 

Those responsible for educational policies in East Africa should realize that the 
millions of Native people must have Native leaders. Already unwise and ignorant 
leaders are teaching false doctrines that cause dissension, irritation and unrest. The 
Great War started ideas and movements, suspicions and ambitions, hopes and desires 
that are extending and deepening among the masses. The increasing entrance of 
Europeans into the heart of Africa, whether in Government and missions, or as traders 
and settlers, is working radical changes in the life of the people. Gossip, rumors and 
propaganda are brought from Europe, Asia and America, and distributed in the huts 
and kraals of these primitive people. There is a crying need for wise leaders who 
both understand their own Native people and apprehend somewhat of the real meaning 
of civilization and Christianity. Such an understanding is by no means easy to 
obtain. It is a quality of statesmanship that requires the best that education has to 
impart. High-sounding literary phrases, in whatever language, must not be allowed 
to pass for education. The transfer of traditional methods that are failing in Europe 
and America cannot be accepted by Africa in its present acute demand for the realities 
of education. 

The Native leadership of Africa must have an opportunity to know the processes 
of historical development. It will not do to spend the major part of the time on the 
superficial facts of history as usually taught. They must be shown that the progress 
of peoples is much less due to the change of dynasties and kings and presidents than 
to the improvement of the masses and their leaders in character and religion, in health, 
in ability to make use of their environment, in normal and moral family life and in 
healthful recreation. Fortunately, such history is now receiving consideration. The 
following quotation from the preface of an interesting book entitled Medieval People, 
by Miss Eileen Power, shows a real appreciation of real history : 

In point of fact, there is often as much material for reconstructing the life of some quite ordinary 


person as there is for writing a history of Robert of Normandy or of Philippa of Hainault ; and the 
lives of ordinary people so reconstructed are, if less spectacular, certainly not less interesting. For 


EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ADAPTATIONS AS 


history, after all, is valuable only in so far as it lives, and Maeterlinck’s cry, ‘‘ There are no dead,” 
should always be the historian’s motto. It is the idea that history is about dead people, or, worse 
still, about movements and conditions which seem but vaguely related to the labors and passions of 
flesh and blood, which has driven history from bookshelves where the historical novel still finds a 
welcome place. 


Thus Bodo [a character described in the book] illustrates peasant life and an early phase of a 
typical medieval estate ; Marco Polo, Venetian trade with the East ; Madame Eglantyne, monastic 
life ; the Menagier’s wife, domestic life in the middle class home, and medizval ideas about women ; 
Thomas Betson, the wool trade, and the activities of the great English trading company of Merchants 
of the Staple ; and Thomas Paycocke, the cloth industry in East Anglia. They are all quite ordinary 
people and unknown to fame, with the exception of Marco Polo. The types of historical evidence 
illustrated are the estate book of a manorial lord, the chronicle treatise on household management, 
the collection of family letters and houses, brasses and wills. 

Higher education which provides such interpretations of human progress will 
enable the Africans to understand the essentials of their own development, to dis- 
tinguish the false from the true, the realities from the unrealities. They will be able 
to realize the advantages and disadvantages of the European colonization of Africa 
and to contrast both with the advantages and disadvantages of independent countries 
like Abyssinia and Liberia. Through such history and through such social sciences as 
economics and sociology, they will learn that the progress and civilization of all 
nations have required the assistance of other nations, that hermit peoples have usually 
been stagnated peoples, that the principle of self-determination is an important half- 
truth, that the complementary half-truth is altruism or brotherhood, which passes on 
experiences and achievements to others. 

Higher education is also essential to provide knowledge of the physical sciences 
necessary to explore and exploit the great resources of soil, minerals and animal life 
in Africa. Chemistry will reveal the quality of soil and minerals. Physics will 
explain the principles of mechanics. Biology will give an insight into plant and 
animal life. Thus the Native Africans will not only be freed from the fears of super- 
stitions, but will also be given a command of their environment that will be of value 
to themselves and to the Colony. The great campaigns for hygiene and sanitation 
required in Africa cannot be effectively carried on without the aid of a Native leader- 
ship trained in the sciences. 

The social and religious life of the millions of Africa awaits Native ministers and 
teachers who have an adequate and accurate knowledge of social forces and religion, 
who can distinguish reason from emotion, conviction from sentiment, service from 
selfishness, true religion from superstition, divine worship from idolatry. In all this 
there is need for acquaintance with the great literatures of the world. The experience 
of history, the wisdom of science, and the inspiration of literature and art will be 
required by Native leadership to guide and direct their people through the perplexing 
processes of evolution from primitive stages of life to those of civilization now forced 
upon them by overwhelming forces, both kind and unkind. 


CZ 


CHAPTER ITT 
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 


HE effective administration of education adapted to the needs of the people and 
A Bee colony should be a primary interest of Government, missions, economic agen- 
cies and Native communities. The potentialities of educational activities related to 
health, agriculture, industry, homes, recreation and character are only now being 
realized by colonial authorities. Education, thus comprehensively developed, would 
supplement the work of many departments of Government, contribute directly to 
the prosperity of the colony, and stimulate the evolution of the people. What better 
ally for the Health Department than a school system teaching and practising hygiene 
throughout the colony ? What agency can give more assistance to the Agricultural 
and Forestry Departments in their propaganda than the teachers of ‘‘ bush” 
schools and central stations? The stern rule and the sometimes arbitrary power of 
the Native police may often be replaced by the guiding and directing influence of the 
school. The Public Works Departments may look to the schools for workers with 
industrial skill, And the political service will everywhere find the Native people 
more intelligent in their cooperation with Government. In contrast with the 
narrow and ineffective teaching of the three R’s now too prevalent in the schools, the 
all-round program suggested here will, of course, sound Utopian. So long as Govern- 
ment and others responsible for education fail to apprehend its potentialities such 
results will continue to be impossible. With effective administration, the schools 
can exert influences that are amazing both in variety and extent. Through the 
heroic efforts of missionaries, sometimes aided by Government but oftener alone, 
such results have been achieved in sufficient number to prove their possibility. 

Hitherto Governments have not taken education scriously. Even the British, 
who are far more interested in education than other colonial Governments, have not 
yet provided Directors of Education for Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, two very 
large and important Colonies. The official status of Directors of Education is almost 
the lowest in the official ratings. Reference to the geographical chapters of the Report 
reveals the inadequate and, in some cases, almost negligible proportion of colonial 
révenue spent on education. 

Happily, there are indications of a genuine movement towards the recognition of 
education in British colonies. The appointment by the Colonial Office of an Advisory 
Committee on Education in Africa is a most significant step. Its deliberations and 
influence are already proving to be of great value. Every British colony is giving 
serious thought to the possibilities of the schools and also of the departments of 
Government with educational potentialities. It seems probable that the adminis- 
tration of education will soon have the dignity and support it deserves and a rank 
quite equal to that of territorial administration. 

Missionary societies have long had a serious regard for education and have main- 

46 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 47 


tained practically 85 per cent. of all the schools for Natives. With full appreciation 
for their remarkable services to the African people and to colonial progress, many 
of them have not realized the importance of school administration. There are three 
or four striking exceptions of societies which have supervised and organized their 
school work with skill and thoroughness. Possibly in Africa the most notable of these 
exceptions are the Scottish missions, the American Board of Foreign Missions and the 
Basel Mission. Most of the missionaries, however, have been so dominated by the 
passion for service as to overlook the value of administrative organization to assist 
them in their great work. Their one aim has been the propagation of the Gospel ; 
they have carried on, impatient of any delay. The strong emotions that impelled 
them to leave their homes and endure the hardships of tropical lands did not permit 
of the deliberation required to think of supervision and organization. The need for 
“occupying the field” seemed a call to immediate action. In consequence, schools and 
churches have been planted beyond the ability to cultivate, guide and direct them. 
Other societies assert that little schools have multiplied beyond their capacity for 
supervision, largely on the initiative of the Natives themselves. They express their 
desire to supervise and organize, but confess their utter inability to supply either the 
staff or the money necessary to realize their wishes. It has been interesting to note 
the uniformity of method, or lack of method, that characterizes the work of certain 
missions, in whatever parts of Africa they work. ‘‘ Occupying the field ” seems to 
appeal to certain societies everywhere. Similarly other societies, wherever they work, 
complain of the unsupervised extension of schools brought about through the 
initiative of Natives. Whatever has hitherto been the cause of indifference to 
administrative provisions, the time has come for vigorous effort to correct the mistakes 
and supply the omissions of the past, so as to avoid the unfortunate losses as well as 
the serious dangers of widely distributed bush schools struggling against obstacles 
which unaided they cannot overcome. The increasing observation of education by 
Government may conceivably manifest itself in a demand that these schools be 
closed because they may become centers of potential danger to the peace of the 
colony. The happy alternative may be that missions, realizing their defects, may 
successfully appeal to Government for financial assistance to improve the supervision 
and organization of the bush schools, so that they may become centers of true 
education among the Native people. 

The supervision and sound organization of the school system, to be effective, depend 
on the five conditions presented herewith. Reference should be made to these in the 
formation of all plans for supervision and organization. They demand the most 
thoughtful consideration of school administrators. The failures of school systems in 
the past are largely traceable to the disregard of one or more of these essentials of 
supervision and organization. 

1. Elasticity and Centralization of the School System.—In the rapid evolution of 
primitive society, the school system is subject to constant change. A system begun 
with only two types of institution may, in a few years, require to be expanded into 
four types. The first systems provided by mission societies required only the central 


48 KDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


station and bush or village schools. Through the educational progress of the Native 
pupils and the multiplication of both village schools and central stations, there arose 
a need for institutions providing higher standards of education. Unfortunately, 
many missionary societies multiplied their schools without properly equipping 
institutions to provide for higher standards and more diverse phases of education. 
There was thus a monotonous level of training that failed to supply the Native leader- 
ship required for safe and effective expansion. It is suggested that the system of 
schools outlined in this chapter shall be regarded merely as a basis to be contracted 
or expanded to suit the requirements of any educational area. 

2. Adjustment of Teachers’ Qualifications—The utterly inadequate supply of 
teachers for the overwhelming number of Natives who are needing the simplest form of 
training and instruction presents a most perplexing problem for school administrators. 
Insistence upon fully trained teachers would necessitate the postponement of 
education for the masses for years. Such a delay is undesirable and even dangerous, 
in view of the acute conditions arising from the rapid entrance of European influences 
into Africa. Happily a solution of this dilemma has been found through experience 
in the rapid extension of educational opportunities to American Negroes. The plan, 
which has yielded satisfactory results, recognizes the temporary necessity of accepting 
teachers with lower qualifications, but provides through effective supervision for the 
rapid evolution of standards to meet the development of the pupils. The one condition 
on which lower standards for teachers can be tolerated, even as a temporary expedient, 
is that both supervision and organization shall provide means and methods for the 
realization of satisfactory advance. The details of this plan will be described in the 
section on “ Visiting Teachers.”’ 

3. Adaptation of Education to Community Life-—In addition to elasticity and 
centralization as regards grades or standards, supervision and organization must 
provide for the adaptation of education to the elements of community life, described 
at length in the preceding chapter. There must thus be not only the vertical varia- 
tions of grades and standards, but also the horizontal variations to meet the need of 
different elements in the community. Differences between urban and rural com- 
munities present the greatest variations of community life. The Natives in the rural 
districts usually live in villages which experience comparatively few changes in the 
manner of life which has prevailed for centuries. In the cities, they are apt to be 
huddled together under strange conditions that are dangerous to morals and to health. 
The contrast in occupations is equally striking. It is obvious, therefore, that the great 
variations in their conditions involve careful regard for adaptation in the education 
provided for urban and rural areas. 

4. Provision of Education for Masses and for Leaders.—The successful organization 
of a school system for the education of a whole community, both masses and leaders, 
requires first a clear differentiation of the type of schools needed for the masses from 
those required for the leaders and then a close coordination of the schools for both, 
At present many school systems in Africa are neither differentiating nor coordina- 
ting the schools for these two groups. There is a tendency either to follow the lines 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 49 


of a natural interest in the masses or to shape work expressive of belief in the need 
for leaders and teachers. Missions which consider only the masses are limited, and 
sometimes defeated, in their endeavors, by their inability to supply leaders and 
teachers to direct work which is beyond the capacity of the European missionaries. 
On the other hand, the exclusive training of leaders is often ineffective and sometimes 
antagonistic to the needs of the masses, and always dangerous for the community if 
the leaders are produced in excess of the demang for their services. Sound policy 
requires that the lower schools must be taught with a living consciousness of the right 
of all pupils to opportunities for advancement to the top of the system. The upper 
schools must be organized with intimate and real regard for their services to the 
lower schools and to the masses of the people. In content and in aim, both the higher 
and the lower schools must be adapted to the common and uncommon elements of 
community life. 

The education of the masses requires many small schools, scattered far and wide, 
with teachers who probably do not possess adequate qualifications, but working 
under a supervision and a friendly visitation that keep high the ideals and stimulate 
a devotion to realities. There is need for various forms of extension education, such 
as traveling schools, farm and home demonstrations, community sanitation and 
recreation centers, maintained by Government, missions, economic agencies or the 
Natives themselves. 

The education of the Native leaders requires schools for the training of teachers and 
religious workers, specialists in agriculture and industry, and those who are to enter 
the professions of theology, medicine, engineering or law. It is important that pro- 
vision be made to prepare these leaders and teachers for their work among the masses, 
and then to aid them in doing it. Hitherto there has been great waste in sending out 
Natives, educated at great expense, to deal with conditions far too difficult for them. 
Inexperienced Native pupils have been expected to introduce reforms that are con- 
trary to tribal authority and the general sentiment of the Native community. It is 
little wonder that many of the students of mission and Government schools have 
turned from serving their own people to work for Europeans. The obvious remedy is 
in the organization of extension movements among the Native people, in which the 
newly trained workers may find an opportunity for rendering a service which lies 
within their power. 

5. School Activities and Educational Eatension.—The idea of a school devoted to the 
service of the community has both varied and extended the influence of education. 
The pioneer conditions through which America and the British Dominions have been 
passing have made necessary the organization of agencies to carry education into 
regions outside the classroom. It is important to recognize the educational character 
of these extension activities. Even though they may be carried on not by the Govern- 
ment Department of Education but by those of Agriculture or Health, they are an 
essential part of the educational: program for the colony and should be definitely 
related to the school system. The failure to recognize the integration of school 
activities and extension education may be injurious to both. The school needs the 


x 


50 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


vitalizing influence of contact with outside conditions, and the extension work requires 
the corrective and directive influence of the school. It is important, therefore, that 
supervision and organization shall see to it that these two expressions of education 
shall be essentially one. 

SUPERVISION 

Sympathetic supervision and friendly visitation of schools in Africa will improve 
all, double the value of a large proportion, and save many from utter failure. Without 
friendly direction, the village school system in parts of Africa will soon be so completely 
discredited as to threaten the arrest of mission activities in those areas. In view of 
the amount of harmful propaganda rife among Native people, Governments cannot be 
indifferent to the existence of a large number of small schools taught by Natives with 
very little education. The one hope for the continuance of such schools is the pro- 
vision of sufficient supervision to guide and direct their work and influence. The real 
contribution made by friendly supervision is, however, not mainly the prevention of 
foolish propaganda, but the encouragement of teachers capable of exerting healthful 
influences in their Native villages. The latent possibilities of the bush or village 
schools, both for the improvement of the Natives and for colonial welfare, have 
been little realized as yet by either Government or missions. These possibilities 
depend directly on wise supervision and friendly visitation. While the village schools 
are undoubtedly more acutely in need of direction and guidance, it is certain that all 
schools would be improved by systematic, sympathetic and constructive criticism. 
Next to the need for increased financial support from Government, the need for 
sympathetic supervision may be emphatically urged upon the serious consideration of 
both missions and Government. 

Director of Education—Much depends on the Director of Education in the 
organization and supervision of the schools. Governments will do well to have high 
standards of qualification for this important office. Ideally, the Director should be 
a man of broad and real sympathy, of keen intellect and large capacity for work. 
His education should be thorough and comprehensive, including knowledge of the 
physical and social sciences as well as the great literatures. Working acquaintance 
with anthropology, sociology and educational psychology is essential. He should 
have seen and studied some of the effective schools of the world, and especially those 
adapted to the needs of a people evolving from primitive stages to civilization. In 
accordance with the experience of leading British Government officials, he should 
understand the importance of religious instruction in character development. He 
should, of course, have an open mind to the great services rendered by missions, which 
hitherto have maintained practically all the school work in the colonies. Missions will 
be the last to expect him to overlook their failures. They are realizing more and more 
how much there is to be done, and will be quite responsive to suggestions for construc- 
tive improvements. The eager search of missionaries and their societies for methods of 
improving their school work is notable and significant. Administrative ability is an 
essential quality of a Director of Education. He must be a judge of men, of their 
temperaments and their ability to deal with the complex elements of education in a 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 51 


primitive community. He must know how to handle financial problems, to make the 
best use of limited financial resources for the payment of teachers’ salaries and the 
construction of school plants. Above all, he must have an intelligent appreciation of 
Native people, of their limitations, but most of all of their capacity to respond to 
educational influences and to grow to the full stature of manhood and womanhood. 

The first responsibility of a Director of Education is to understand the needs of the 
people along the lines indicated in the chapter on “Objectives and Adaptations.”” He 
will then ascertain the extent to which the present educational influences are meeting 
these needs. His study must have regard both for the geographical distribution of 
such influences as well as for their effectiveness in supplying the varied needs of a 
primitive people. In other words, the study must be quantitative and qualitative. 
His second responsibility is the selection of his staff of inspectors and supervisors, 
both European and Native. In point of view of preparation, the staff must, as far 
as possible, share the qualifications outlined for the Director. His first concern 
for the field is the organization of a supervising system for existing schools, whether 
they are owned by Government or by missions. It is obviously sound economy to 
improve existing facilities before undertaking new enterprises. When this has been 
done, he will be prepared to recommend to Government or to missions the necessity 
of additional schools to extend education among the masses, or to supply some other 
elements of the education needed by the community. 

A Director of Education with the capacities and responsibilities outlined above 
deserves high rank among colonial officials. Hitherto, this has not been given in 
any of the Colonies, many of which do not even have a Department of Education. 
This unfortunate condition applies to only three British Colonies; in one of these the 
lack is being remedied in 1925. If the Governments expect education to train and 
instruct the Native people for effective community life, it will be necessary to give 
the Education Department and its Director a dignity and authority equal to that of 
any other department. Is it not good economy and real statesmanship to make every 
effort to have a contented, thrifty, industrious and moral population who are co- 
operating in all that concerns the welfare of the colony? Surely a well-directed 
Department of Education is essential to such an ideal. 

Advisory Committee on Native Education—The appointment of Advisory Commit- 
tees on Native Education by several British colonies and by all but one of the South 
African provinces is probably the most significant movement for education in Africa 
in many years. The climax of this movement was the organization by the British 
Colonial Office of an Advisory Committee on Native Education in Tropical Africa 
in 1923. Major Ormsby-Gore, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in com- 
mending the Committee to Parliament, made a remarkable statement which is quoted 
at length by Dr. Stokes in his Introduction to this Report. As the pages go to press, 
the Advisory Committee are issuing their official memorandum, intended for circula- 
tion in the British Dependencies in Africa. The opening paragraphs are as follows : 


As a result on the one hand of the economic development of the British African dependencies, 
which has placed larger revenues at the disposal of the Administrations, and on the other hand of 


52 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the fuller recognition of the principle that the Controlling Power is responsible as Trustee for the 
moral advancement of the Native population, the Governments of these territories are taking an 
increasing interest and participation in Native education, which up to recent years had been largely 
left to the Mission Societies. 

In view of the widely held opinion that the results of education in Africa (as in India) have not 
been altogether satisfactory, and with the object of creating a well-defined educational policy, 
common to this group of Dependencies—comprising an area of over 23 million square miles with a 
population of approximately 40 million—the Secretary of State decided in 1923 toset up an Advisory 
Committee on Education in British Tropical Africa. 

The Committee feels that it has now reached a point at which it is possible to formulate the 
broad principles which in its judgment should form the basis of a sound educational policy, and, 
with the approval of His Majesty’s Government, set forth these views to the local Governments, 
together with some indication of the methods by which they should be applied. 

This document, which sets forth a policy in complete harmony with the position 
taken up in this Report, will serve not only as a guide to colonial policy within the 
British Empire but will exert influence in the right direction with regard to education 
and its adaptations throughout the whole of Africa. 

The membership of the Committee is an excellent indication of the probable 
service to be rendered, and therefore warrants further explanation. The chairmanship 
is held ew-officio by the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, ensuring close 
relations with the Government. Sir Frederick Lugard contributes his varied and 
extensive African experience as traveler, army officer and Governor of Nigeria. 
Sir Michael Sadler enables the Committee to command the best British thought and 
experience in education. Sir James Currie has spent many years in Egypt, knows 
much of East Africa, and is deeply interested in agriculture, and especially in the 
raising of cotton in Africa. Bishop Bidwell, who is also a member, represents the 
great work of Roman Catholic missions. The Bishop of Liverpool, formerly the 
Headmaster of Rugby, brings to the deliberations not only the authority of his high 
office in the Anglican Church, but also the unique qualities and ideals of education 
which have helped to make Rugby and the other great English public schools famous 
throughout the world. Mr. J. H. Oldham, as Secretary of the International Missionary 
Council, is in close touch with missionary agencies in America, Great Britain and the 
Kuropean Continent. His study of British colonial activities, especially those con- 
cerned with the welfare of the people, of problems of race, on which he has recently 
written a valuable book, and his knowledge of education, both general and religious, 
have prepared him for the service of the Committee. The Secretary for the Advisory 
Committee, referred to by Major Ormsby-Gore, has been found in the person of Major 
Vischer, who traveled with the Educational Commission throughout East Africa, and 
has had a large share in the production of this Report. Such membership of a Com- 
mittee selected and appointed by the Colonial Office is a striking evidence of the 
genuine interest of the British Government in colonial education. It is to be hoped 
that other European Powers may follow this excellent example. 

The Advisory Committees in the colonies and provinces are rapidly proving their 
value. Natal, the pioneer in the plan, and the Transvaal, have effective organi- 
zations. The Committee in Kenya Colony is active and efficient. Organized in 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 53 


April, 1924, it has formulated plans and budgets for which the Government has 
already voted funds. Its membership includes able and influential men representing 
Government, missions and settlers. A remarkable harmony of views during the 
deliberations has developed, and a cooperation that assures much for Native educa- 
tion and for the general progress of the Colony is springing up. 

The above references to Committees already organized suggest the diversity of 
membership required as well as the kind of activities in which the Committees may 
profitably engage. It is certain that there should be in them representatives of 
Government, missions and such economic groups as settlers and traders. Wherever 
there are Natives capable of understanding educational policies a place should be 
reserved for Native membership. The appointment of missionary members should be 
approximately in proportion to the number of schools maintaining satisfactory 
standards of education. The small missionary societies should combine to secure 
the election of a representative on the Committee. 

The first duty of the Committee should be to arrive at a common mind as to the 
aims of education. In this connection it may be helpful to consider the objectives 
as they are defined in the first chapter in this Report. Inthe discussions each member 
should not only present the interest of his own group, but give serious consideration 
to the point of view of the others. Thus cooperation, which is undoubtedly the most 
effective means for the encouragement of education, will be evolved. Such Com- 
mittees will provide for the full and clear presentation of the educational needs of the 
colony and will help to win general confidence and interest in the maintenance and 
extension of school work. Through their influence, Government Departments will 
assist education along the line of their special responsibility. Settlers and traders 
will be persuaded to contribute both of their experience and of their financial resources 
toward the support of the extension of education. Missionaries will broaden the 
scope of their school work to supply the need of the Colony. Natives will respond 
to the appeals for their interest and support. 

Government Supervision—Government supervision should include inspection, 
supervision and friendly visitation. The chief purpose of inspection is to ascertain 
the extent to which school methods and results attain the required standards. The 
English system of school inspection is universally known for its thoroughness. It is 
an important and useful phase of supervision, provided it does not develop antagonism 
between the teacher and the inspector. The specific function of supervision is to 
direct the teacher to conform to certain standards. This, too, has its value in school 
administration. The method of friendly visitation is to work with the teacher for the 
realization of the required standard. It is supervision by friendly advice. It is 
supervising by doing. The spirit and method are essentially friendly and inspira- 
tional in dealing both with the pupil and the teacher. Both inspection and super- 
vision tend to emphasize rigidity of standard, the performance of a certain quantity 
and quality of work without adequate regard either for the ability or the needs of 
the pupils. Helpful and effective supervision requires a well-balanced proportion of 
inspection, supervision and friendly visitation. It is hoped that the officers now 


5A EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


called inspectors may be given the titles, as well as the functions, of supervisors 
and friendly visitors. They will, of course, not omit the responsibility of inspection, 
but they will give the teacher the feeling that they are primarily friendly supervisors. 

Mission Supervision.—It is important that missions shall continue their methods 
of supervision and improve them. A few missions have remarkably effective and 
wise systems of guiding and directing their village schools. The majority of the 
societies, however, have not realized the importance of adequate supervision. While 
inspection is necessarily a part of the supervisory responsibility of Government, it 
is best that missions shall center their attention on supervision and friendly visitation. 
The following illustrations will both explain some of the present methods and serve 
as suggestions for others. 

One mission has divided the field into districts with a central school and an 
European supervisor in each district. Each sub-district has fifteen to twenty village 
schools taught by Native men and visited once every four or six weeks by the European 
visitor, who may be a man or woman, trained in methods of supervision. At the 
end of the week the Native teachers are assembled for an afternoon at the central 
school for instruction in the school subjects, teaching methods and religion. During 
the war, Native supervisors were used with considerable success. The supervisors 
are expected to keep full record of observations, suggestions offered and improvements 
effected. 

In another mission, the out-schools are so located as to be within from one to four 
hours’ travel from the central station. This is made possible by the density of popula- 
tion in that district. In this case the teacher of method has several means.of frequent 
communication with teacher and school. Some of the Native teachers spend half 
the day at the central station and half as assistant teachers in the out-schools. The 
teachers of other schools come to the central station at least once a week. The 
European teacher of method or her assistant visits the out-schools with considerable 
regularity, so that once a year every pupil is personally examined. 

Another institution has arranged its annual program so that a number of European 
teachers may spend a month or six weeks in the field, living in tents at night, visiting 
schools and assembling teachers for special instruction and encouragement in their 
work. 

Still another mission has divided its field, so that there is a central village school 
which exercises friendly supervision over a number of village schools located in each 
district. The Native teachers of all the village schools are assembled at least once 
a year at the central station, where there is an European in charge. 

Visiting Teachers for Village Schools——The outstanding problem of supervision 
in Africa is the improvement of the village schools, which have multiplied into 
hundreds, possibly thousands, either through the stimulation of over-enthusiastic 
missionaries or the unchecked activities of the Natives. For a number of years 
the improvement of these multitudinous schools has seemed a hopeless task. Happily, 
the experience of America in dealing with a problem that had many points of resem- 
blance offers a solution which students of education in Africa believe applicable, 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 55 


The experiment was made possible in America through the generosity of a Quaker 
woman, Miss Anna T. Jeanes, who believed in little schools and gave her fortune for 
their improvement. The plan was described in the Report of the previous Education 
Commission, entitled Education in Africa, and has already been initiated in several 
colonies. Its main features are described in the following quotations from that 
Report : 


1. The supervising teachers are qualified to enter sympathetically into the problems of education 
in village or rural areas. They are thoroughly imbued with the conviction that school activities 
must be related to the life of the individual and the community. To be sure not all supervising 
teachers are equal in their appreciation of the essentials of educational adaptation as outlined in the 
chapter on “ Educational Objectives and Adaptations ” in this Report, but they are prepared to 
persuade the teacher of the local school to direct the school activities toward the improvement 
of the individual and the community. 

2. Probably the most important element in the methods of the supervisory teacher is to 
initiate the necessary educational changes by actual demonstration in cooperation with the teacher 
and pupils rather than by talks or memoranda. The method is distinctly ‘‘ teaching by doing ” 
on the part of the teacher. The spirit and method are essentially friendly and inspirational in 
dealing both with the local teacher and the pupils as well as the community. 

3. The typical method of procedure requires a brief outline of the usual activities of the 
supervisory teacher in dealing with the school. The first contacts with the local school are with 
the activities actually under way at the time of the visit. These are usually the teaching of the 
threeR’s. The visiting teacher tactfully joins in the activities, gradually making changes in the class- 
room instruction. When friendly contacts have been made the teachers proceed as rapidly as 
circumstances warrant from one phase of school life to the other until all possible improvements 
have been realized. The first visit may be of very brief duration, not more than half a day, or 
it may continue for three or four or even six days, the duration of the visit depending entirely upon 
conditions at the school and the responsibilities of the supervisor for schools elsewhere. The 
influence of the supervising teacher extends from the teaching of the three R’s to other activities 
of the school. The teacher is shown how to enrich the curriculum by the addition of simple 
instruction and practice in household activities for the girls and handicrafts for the boys. The 
theory and practice of gardening eventually obtain a rank equal to that of the three R’s. Whenever 
possible these activities are taught in connection with a neighboring home so that they may be 
more real in their influence. The handicrafts are used for the repairs and improvement of the school 
building and environment. Through repeated visits the supervisory teacher extends the influence 
of the school into the neighborhood so that the homes and the farms reflect the interest of teachers 
and pupils. Parents’ leagues and boys’ and girls’ clubs are formed for the introduction of healthful 
recreation and the general improvement of the community. Church, school, home, and farm are 
thus united for the general welfare. 


Supervision of Accounts, Records and Building Operations.—Three important phases 
of educational administration are financial accounting, keeping student records, and 
planning buildings and grounds. The acceptance of merely abstract aims in 
education has led to the overlooking of the essential value of these concrete and 
definite requirements of an effective school system. Inadequacy of staff and funds 
have made it necessary to exclude all activities that were not recognized as immediately 
helpful. The most elementary principles of good management, however, demand 
records “and plans for any undertaking. The more limited the funds, the more 
necessary are plans. The more novel the problem of education, the more necessary 
are records. In dealing with strange conditions of primitive life, it would have 


56 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


been exceedingly helpful to have had records of the experiments made. Such facts 
concerning mission activities in Africa would reveal the great results achieved by 
missionaries on very slender means. _ It is therefore urged for the purpose of economy 
in handling limited resources, as the basis for future policies and as records of great 
achievements on slender funds, that student records and school accounts shall be 
carefully kept. The following suggestions, based on the recommendations of those 
who have had long experience, are transferred from the Report on Education in 
Africa: 


School Accounts 

1. A system of accounts suited to the needs of the school should be installed and the books 
audited annually. 

2. An inventory should be made showing the value and extent of land, buildings, and movable 
equipment. 

3. An annual school budget should be prepared showing the details of probable income and 
estimated expenditure during the year for the various departments and activities of the institution, 
such as administration, instruction, maintenance of buildings and grounds, additions and improve- 
ments, travel and transportation, fuel, light and water supplies, equipment, and transactions 
with students and tradesmen. Where an institution is administered through departments, the 
budget should show the appropriations and expenditures for the various activities of each depart- 
ment. Such a budget will not only provide a means of controlling the expenditures during any 
year, but wiil also furnish accurate figures for comparison of similar expenditures from year to year. 

4, The accounts should be arranged in accordance with the budget schedules and as far as 
possible should include an account for each item of the budget, as well as for interdepartmental 
transactions. It is of course to be understood that all the accounts should be kept in accordance 
with principles of double-entry bookkeeping in its most simple form. 


Student Records 

1. The student records should show the name, home address, place and date of birth and 
religious preference of the applicant ; name, home address, and occupation of the parents ; pre- 
paratory training of the pupil, including the names of the schools attended, and the length of time 
spent in each. 

2. The record should show the progress of the pupil in the classroom, in general work, in 
health, and in character development. Some schools have found it profitable to record such 
character qualities as ability to comprehend instructions, promptness, courtesy, accuracy, personal 
appearance. 

3. Asystem of recording the progress of ex-students has great value, not only as a measurement 
of what the school is doing but also as a directive influence in the life of the pupil wherever he 
may be. . Such a system may be effected by endeavoring to obtain an annual communication 
from ex-students. 


Buildings and Grounds 

The following suggestions have been assembled from various sources dealing with buildings 
in Africa : 

1. Careful consideration should be given to the altitude, prevailing wind, rainfall, drainage, 
water supply, the view, the fertility of the soil, proximity to Native populations, and the possibilities 
of getting rid of dangerous insects and pests such as mosquitoes and tsetse flies. The direction of 
the sun will locate the heat and the shade; the run-off of the rain will show the slope and the 
nature of the soil; and the direction of the wind will indicate the cool and cold exposures. Most 


important of all is it to avoid mosquito breeding places and to make sure of an adequate supply 
of pure water. 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 57 


Pa 


2. The location and plan of the buildings should be determined by the direction of the rays 
of the sun, and by local drainage. As far as possible a general plan should be evolved and adopted 
for future extension and development of the plant. Accept suggestions offered by existing natural 
features and face the buildings inwards and towards each other unless, owing to the excessive 
slope of the land or to other considerations, such an arrangement is impracticable. A plan like 
this will save time and expense and will result in a more orderly and attractive appearance. 

3. Cheap construction is not usually economical. It is better economy to construct buildings 
small, durable, and ready for extension than to build commodiously and cheaply. It is better to 
omit useless towers, spires, galvanized iron embellishments, etc., than to economize on the founda- 
tions or the strength and durability of the building. 

4. The material should receive careful consideration. In a humid climate wood is the least 
desirable of all. Sun-dried bricks are satisfactory, cheap, and lasting, if the clay is suitable and” 
the walls are properly protected. Burnt bricks are on the whole better, and concrete is best of all. 

5. The foundation should, if possible, be constructed of stone and high enough to protect 
from excessive moisture. Ventilation should be provided where the climate is humid or the soil damp. 

6. Mosquito proofing should be used wherever necessary. This requires special care that no 
holes be left large enough for mosquitoes to enter, and constant care should be exercised with regard 
to doors and windows. Imperfect joints frequently admit mosquitoes. Screen doors should 
open out. 

7. In most sections provision for ant proofing should be made. This is accomplished through 
careful cementing of floors, by use of burnt tiles, or by treating earth floors with boiling tar. Tar 
may also be used through the walls and on the outside of buildings. All frames should be treated 
with some ant-proof preparation or should be charred. 

8. Tiles, where available, make the best roof. Roofs should not be lined close up to the 
rafters, lest a hiding place for rats, bats, etc., be furnished. A large air space where light and air 
can enter freely is best. 


School Log Book 


The English custom requiring school officers to keep a Log Book indicating the important 
facts for each school day results in one of the best forms of school records observed in Africa. The 
facts reported are necessarily rather general. Usually they include attendance for the day, time 
of opening and closing school, visitation by inspectors, school patrons and visitors, and comments 
made by visitors on the character of the work. The value of the book partly depends on the 
interest and ability of the teacher. Its simplicity, its adaptability to many types of schools, and 
its continuity from day to day and year to year make the Log Book a very effective means 
of ascertaining the condition and progress of the schools. 


ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL SYSTEM 


Two essential features of an effective school system are first, elasticity or provision 
for an expansion to supply additional schools for the untaught masses and, second, 
centralization to add higher standards, improve the quality of the work, and adapt 
the training to the varied conditions. The efficiency of school systems in Africa 
differs largely according to the extent of their recognition or disregard of these two 
features of organization. An enumeration of the existing systems will help to explain 
their strength and weakness. 

Some systems are composed of numerous stations, with one or more European 
workers or families directing a number of village schools. This may be called the 
feudalistic type of organization in which each station and its European family 


58 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


disseminates helpful influences among its own village schools without much regard to 
the activities of other stations. In the early stages the success of this system depends 
almost entirely on the ability, ingenuity and devotion of the European in charge. 
Many of the mission units have been remarkably successful during the first year 
of their service. The weakness of this feudal system is in its inability to provide 
advanced training and thus supply Native teachers to carry on the work. While the 
system has a pleasing diversity allowing for personal initiative, it lacks unity and 
correlation of effort to a dangerous degree. 

. Another type of organization centers its workers and resources in one strong 
institution with many village schools directly dependent upon it. This type may 
possibly be justified in densely populated areas, but it has a tendency to foster neglect 
of the villages removed from the center and a loss of touch with the little needs of 
a little people. 

Some systems have both a strong central institution with a capable European 
staff and a series of small stations, each with one or two European families directing 
a number of village schools. In many cases this is, for the present, ideal, but the 
need has already developed in some areas for the designation of one of the village 
schools to assist in the supervision, and to advance selected pupils one or more 
standards above those of the ordinary village schools. 

The system tentatively presented in this chapter is therefore a four-fold arrange- 
ment of schools, with a colonial Native college accessible either in the colony or in a 
neighboring colony. The grades of institutions mentioned below are described 
at length in subsequent paragraphs and illustrated in the geographical chapters : 
Village Schools; Central Village Schools; Station Schools; Central Station 
Schools ; Colonial Native College. There will of course also be schools, or departments 
of school training, such as technical and agricultural courses, the preparation of 
teachers and religious workers, education for the professions. There will also be 
schools for the training of girls and women. Finally, the organization will provide 
for educational extension activities, such as traveling schools, farm and home 
demonstration and educational conferences. 

There has been much confusion in the terminology describing schools in Africa. 
The most general confusion has been in the use of the terms ‘‘ middle ”’ and “ inter- 
mediate ” schools. In Uganda, for example, the terms “central”? and ‘“ high ” 
schools have had an entirely different meaning from that current elsewhere. In the 
Tanganyika Department of Education the term “‘ elementary ” refers to the lowest 
standards of the school and “ primary ” to the succeeding standards. As a rule 
the terms “ intermediate” and ‘“ middle” are used interchangeably to refer to the 
upper elementary standards or grades from the fourth to the sixth or even eighth 
standard. In the early stages of mission education the middle or intermediate schools 
were really the highest in the field, even though they did not proceed beyond the third 
or fourth English standard, or fourth American grade. In the more advanced system 
of Natal, the intermediate schools provide instruction up to the fifth and sixth 
standards. ‘They have been organized to consolidate the small number of pupils in 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 59 


these standards into schools with better equipment. In view of the varying meanings 
attached to these terms, it seems necessary to define them in relation to the system 
described in this chapter. 

1. ‘“‘ Local schools” are usually the various grades of Village or Bush Schools. 
They may include two or three years of sub-standard instruction and standards 
one to three. 

2. The terms ‘‘ middle or intermediate ” refer to the Station Schools, and often 
to the Central Station Schools as well. Under primitive conditions of education, 
they do not go beyond the third or fourth standard. In the more advanced colonies 
they usually complete the sixth standard. They have been the chief agencies for 
the training of teachers. In view of the fact that these schools represent the highest 
schools in many of these areas, the terms ‘‘ middle’’ and “ intermediate ” are not 
only confusing but misleading. With the rapid, development of school systems to 
include secondary and collegiate education, the terms will assume their proper 
significance. 

In the rapid evolution and extension of school facilities in Africa it is necessary 
to use school terminology with due regard for the ascending or spiral development 
of the school system. Local schools that are to-day sub-standard may in the next 
stage include the first to the third standard, and still later on may comprise even 
the fifth to the sixth standard. Similarly, the middle or intermediate schools pro- 
vide an ascending arrangement of grades. It is exceedingly important that such 
terms as high, central, elementary and primary shall conform as nearly as possible 
to current use in Europe and America. Further suggestions on this subject will be 
found in the chapters on Uganda and Tanganyika. 


VILLAGE SCHOOLS 


These are the day schools variously called bush, hedge or out-schools. They are 
the outposts of civilization. With all their defects they have rendered a great 
service and, in a sense, they are the most important parts of the educational system. 
Potentially they are centers of an educative propaganda among the masses on health, 
agriculture, industry, thrift, morals and morale. In their present condition many 
of them are ‘little nothings,’ neglected, poor and unsupervised. Their buildings 
are often ugly shacks with no equipment, distinguishable from the Native huts 
only by their size. A large number of their teachers are ignorant and untrained, 
‘* blind leaders of the blind,” either futile as regards community influence or exercising 
an influence which has no basis in reality. 

Improvement of the Village Schools should be the first responsibility of the colonial 
authorities. The contribution which right supervision can make to this important 
agency has already been explained. Many changes will be involved in the whole 
school system. The primary consideration in the plans for improvement must be 
the qualification of the teachers. The ideals to be sought in the teachers are described 
in the following quotation from Education in Africa : 


60 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The dictum that ‘‘ the teacher is the school ” is emphatically true of the local schools. Building 
and program are unimportant as compared with the qualities of the teacher. The minimum 
requirements should be character to withstand the temptations of the community, knowledge of 
the three R’s and of health, some skill in gardening and handicrafts, and a determination to make 
a contribution to the improvement of the community. The standard educational requirements 
should be the completion of twelve years of schooling, including teacher-training formulated accord- 
ing to the principles of educational adaptation. The present custom of employing only men as 
teachers in these schools will probably be continued for some time to come, but it is very desirable 
that women teachers be increasingly employed when conditions warrant the change. 


The program of school activities should include the three R’s, hygiene, garden- 
ing, Native crafts and character development through moral and religious instruction 
and practice. The language of instruction should be the vernacular, and all should 
be closely related to the daily life of the community. The recommendations of the 
chapter on ‘“‘ Objectives and Adaptations ” are emphatically directed to the organiza- 
tion of Village Schools. In the well-developed systems, these local schools offer the 
equivalent of three English standards and the daily program provides classroom 
instruction in the morning, and village crafts, gardening and recreation in 
the afternoon. The building and equipment of even these small schools deserve 
careful consideration. The following quotation suggests the possibilities of simple 
equipment : 

The building and equipment have possibilities of great variety to be determined by numerous 
conditions. 'The schoolhouse may be merely a rounded dome of palmetto leaves protecting children 
from rain and sun, or it may be a well-constructed building designed with due regard for tropical 
conditions and with facilities for teaching all the activities above outlined. With any type of 
building there may be a garden, a playground, and a teacher’s house not far away. There should 
be every possible regard for the building materials and customs of the community. The laws of 
sanitation should be observed not only within the schoolroom but also in the provision for playground 
and outhouses. The necessary equipment for classroom, handicrafts, and playground may be made 
by the ingenious teacher. Seating arrangements should have regard for the size and age of the 
pupils. The blackboard should be located with due regard for the light. 


It is urged that these recommendations be not dismissed as impossible. They 
are ideals which are being realized in Africa. With the effective, wise and sympathetic 
direction and guidance of visiting teachers these aims can be attained. 


CENTRAL VILLAGE SCHOOLS 


This type of school is required where Village Schools are too numerous or too widely 
scattered to be supervised by the Station School. Central Village Schools serve the 
double purpose of providing supervision for a few Village Schools and a standard or 
two more education for pupils assembled from the lower schools. The recommenda- 
tions outlined above for the Village Schools must also be realized in the more advanced 
schools. The program will include elementary science or nature study with an 
agricultural bias, and further instruction in craft work and village industries. 

In the more advanced systems, an European language should be introduced inte 
the curriculum. The assembling of the pupils from the upper standards of the 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 61 


smaller schools relieves them of the necessity of maintaining classes for two or three 
pupils and provides for these pupils the better facilities of a larger school. 

The Central Village School in its ideal form is best illustrated by what are called 
in America the “ Rosenwald schools,” which were made possible by an American 
philanthropist who, with the late Booker Washington, conceived the idea of encourag- 
ing the development of rural schools by offering to cooperate financially with the 
Government and with the Negro people in the erection of rural community schools. 
The important features of the Rosenwald schools are : 


The type plant bas been designed by architects who have considered the varying purposes of 
the school, the climate, and the available material of the country. The main building is so arranged 
as to make possible additional rooms as the demands of the community increase. The simplest 
form of school has one large room, with alcoves for the teaching of special activities, such as cooking, 
sewing, and simple handicrafts. There is in all schools space for gardening and recreation. In 
the more complete schools there are classrooms for at least three teachers, a comfortable home for 
the head teacher and his wife, and smaller buildings for the teaching of work in wood and iron and 
other handicrafts. The teacher’s home is a vital part of the instructional system. The girls share 
in all the duties of home life. As the needs of the teacher’s family necessitate the maintenance of 
a garden and such domestic animals as the cow, the pig, and chickens, the school activities are made 
real by participation in the care of these simple but vital needs of the rural home. Such a school 
becomes the neighborhood center. From it there radiate influences that make for the improvement 
of economic conditions, sanitation and health, recreation and morals. 


In the course of time these Central Village Schools will probably become the 
center both for the training of village teachers and for their friendly supervision. 
They will then resemble the County Training Schools of America and be prepared 
to take over the responsibilities of the small mission stations described in the next 
section. 


STATION SCHOOLS 


These are the smaller Station Schools under the supervision of one or more European 
missionaries. Their functions are first, to provide education above that of the Village 
or Central Village Schools, if there are any, and second, to supervise such schools. 
Ideally they should have all the qualities of the Rosenwald schools, described above, 
and also provision for boarders ; instruction in both an European language and the 
vernacular ; instruction in agriculture and related elementary science; simple 
industries ; and a limited amount of methods and practice of teaching. With these 
elements of organization and functions they resemble the American County Training 
Schools whose contribution to Negro education has been most valuable both in the 
improvement of teaching in the small schools, and in the increase of them by better 
qualified teachers willing to teach in these districts. These small Station Schools 
will thus be the chief source of supply of teachers for the Village and assistants for 
the Central Village Schools. 

At present these Station Schools are quite varied in form and function. Some 
of them are centers of the feudal type mentioned in an earlier paragraph. The curri- 
culum of some differs from the Village School only in the quality of work done under 


62 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the supervision of the European in charge. Some of them provide higher instruction ; 
some have boarding facilities for a few pupils; and some have attained practically 
all the desired qualities. The more successfully they realize their aims, the sooner 
will they be able to transfer their responsibilities to the Central Village Schools. They 
will then either take that designation or they will undertake the wider responsibilities of 
Central Station Schools. 


CENTRAL STATION SCHOOLS 


These are the central power and directing stations of education in Africa. Every 
mission society has some kind of Central Station School. Even though the majority 
of them fall far short of educational standards, defined either according to conventional 
terms or to community adaptation, they are the most unique, the most interesting 
and the most effective institution in Africa. They are usually a religious and educa- 
tional community of European or American men, women and children living in Africa 
among the Native people. What they have aimed at or claimed to do is often far less 
important than what they have actually done. While many have professed the 
propagation of a narrow dogma to be their chief aim, their manner of life has 
imparted the way of civilization and Christianity. Many are pitifully inadequate and 
a few are hopelessly futile. Some are masterpieces of organization and are limited 
only by lack of funds. These have learned the history of the community and have a 
living consciousness of its needs, as well as knowledge of the resources, physical and 
human, to supply the needs. Impressive examples of these heroic successes may be 
found in the geographical chapters ‘of this Report. The achievements of Laws of 
Livingstonia are possibly the most dramatic of all. The highway up the mountain 
side, the harnessing of the mountain streams to produce electric power for light and 
for machinery to grind the corn and saw the lumber, the afforestation of miles of 
country, are engineering feats worthy of the skill, authority and resources of a Govern- 
ment rather than the work of a missionary in Central Africa. But these are the 
least of his services; for through fifty years of life in Africa he has devoted his 
statesmanship of international quality, his medical skill, his philosophic appreciations 
and, above all, his Christian conceptions of human society to build up a Christian 
institution whose influence is gradually remaking that part of Nyasaland. 

With full appreciation of the services rendered by central stations, it must be 
recognized that very few institutions are comparable with Livingstonia. Not many 
of them reveal such understanding of the objective and adaptation of education as 
they are presented in the chapter on that subject. The most common defect is a 
relative over-emphasis on the literary almost to the exclusion of the economic, 
hygienic and social needs of the community. Next to the improvement of the village 
schools, the redirection of the central station schools toward adaptation to the needs 
of the community is the outstanding responsibility of education in Africa. The 
extent and character of the redirection will, of course, depend on the present condition 
of the institution, as well as on the school system to which it belongs. It must not be 
so changed as to lose touch with its own system. Secondary standards of education, 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 63 


for example, must not be introduced until pupils are prepared for them. Adaptation 
must not be made so rapidly as to incur hostility. Permanent progress is, as a rule, 
best secured through evolution stimulated by a living consciousness of the community. 

To meet the variety of needs of both the school system and the colony, the Central 
Station School should offer a variety of courses and activities. A general education 
must be provided ; vocational training for teaching, for religious work, for medical 
assistants, for mechanical and agricultural pursuits; and preparation for entrance 
to university and professional schools. The standard of instruction should, so 
far as possible, be that of secondary courses. Care must be taken not to exclude 
virile pupils whose inadequate preparation is due to the inaccessible location of good 
Village Schools. It is important to provide preparation for such pupils at the institu- 
tion or at the better type of small Station Schools. The plant, equipment and especially 
the dormitories should be educational in type and administration. 

Sir Michael Sadler and other distinguished educationists are increasingly certain 
that this comprehensive or omnibus type of institution is best suited to meet the needs 
of African colonies. Fortunately the better types of central mission stations have 
many features of this comprehensive organization. In view of the importance and 
variety of the activities and of the instruction required in these institutions, it may be 
helpful to formulate suggestions and plans for the training of the different kinds of 
workers. So far as the plans recommended in Education in Africa are applicable, 
they will be presented again in this Report. They may be received with the added 
authority of experience in both West and East Africa, as well as with the assurance 
of favorable criticism by many who have read the earlier Report. 


Teacher-Training 


No teachers have a more important or difficult work than the Native teachers of Africa. They 
have the opportunity to be not only the teachers of youth, they can also become the centers of 
community life. They can not only be the guides and counsellors of their people; they can also 
become their best representatives in all dealings with the white people. In the upward struggles 
of a primitive race there is need for teachers with a broad conception of educational aims. The 
teaching of book knowledge is only a small part of the task. There must be the development of 
habits of industry, thrift, perseverance, and the common virtues so essential to successful living. 
The character of the work that must be done by the African teacher was well described by General 
Armstrong in his early reports on Hampton Institute. Some of his striking sayings are here 
noted : 


Schools are not for brain alone but for the whole man, The teachers should be not mere 
pedagogues but citizens. 

The personal force of the teacher is the main thing. Outfit and apparatus, about which so 
much fuss is made, are secondary. 

To me the end of education for the classroom is more and more clear. It should be straight 
thinking. 

Instruction in books is not all of it. 

General deportment, habits of living and of labor, right ideas of life and duty, are taught 
[at Hampton] in order that graduates may be qualified to teach others these important lessons of 
life. 

The three elements in the preparation of teachers are, first, sound habits of thought and action 


64 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


in the common tasks of the common day and some natural aptitude for teaching ; second, knowledge 
of the subjects to be taught and skill in the activities related thereto ; and, third, appreciation both 
of the pupil’s mind and character and also of the community from which the pupil has come. The 
details of the first two elements have been presented in the chapters dealing with the various phases 
of education. There has also been considerable discussion of adaptation to the needs of the pupil 
and the community. It is now necessary only to indicate the specific elements of teacher-training. 

These elements are educational psychology, principles and methods of teaching, and the applica- 
tion of these subjects in practice teaching. In the normal courses observed it has seemed to the 
Commission that the long periods of time devoted to elementary school subjects might better be 
spent in the study of secondary subjects, supplemented by subjects more directly related to the 
work of teaching. Dragging pupils through elementary school subjects for a year or two of dull 
repetition modified only by artificial methods of teaching has seemed a poor use of the pupils’ time. 
It seems far better to divide the time between a vigorous and intensive study of the secondary 
subjects outlined above and real practice teaching. 

‘** Learning by doing ”’ is as vital in the training of teachers as in the preparation of any other 
group of workers. Practice teaching under careful supervision is an essential part of a teacher’s 
education. This practice should be done under conditions that are as real as the facilities will 
permit. Enough time should be devoted to the practice to enable the pupil-teacher to have some 
appreciation of the variety of teaching experiences. In a four-year course the minimum should be 
one-half of the last year. 

Training in Village Handicrafts and Trades 

Training in handicraft has two purposes, first to prepare visiting and supervising 
teachers to direct the teaching of simple handicrafts in the village schools ; second, 
to teach trades required in the large industrial operations of the colony. Both fune- 
tions are essential to the prosperity of the Natives and the colonies. It is always to 
be remembered that manual training and trade instruction have not only economic 
value, but quicken the mind and cultivate sound habits. The teaching of village 
crafts and trades may be merged into a continuous process. First, all pupils may 
be taught the village handicrafts, then those who show special aptitude in handwork 
may be given the opportunity to specialize in trades. In schools with Native girls, 
manual training includes household activities and village crafts. This is specially 
important for young women who are to be teachers. 

The general purpose of industrial training and suggestions as to method have been 
presented in the chapter on “ Educational Objectives and Adaptations.” European 
teachers who have specialized in trades or household arts will be able to make the 
adaptations required. In view of the temptation to ignore the need for adaptation, 
teachers should be exceedingly careful not to transfer European aims and methods 
until they are quite certain that they are suitable to African conditions. Above all, 
the needs of the African villages must not be neglected in the effort to satisfy the 
demands of Europeans. In the long run, the improvement of the masses of the 
people is a greater advantage to both Europeans and Natives than the satisfaction 
of the temporary needs of the few Europeans. 


Education in Agriculture and Gardening 


The primary purpose of agricultural education in the central station is to impart 
to supervising and visiting teachers a respect for agriculture, including what the 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 65 


Native people know, as well as a scientific appreciation of the processes of the soil 
and plant growth. The importance of agriculture and the method of ascertaining 
local conditions have been described in a former chapter. Visiting teachers thus 
equipped will pass on their ideas to the village teachers, who in turn will be able to 
give the cultivation of the soil its proper place in the curriculum of their little schools. 
In this way the influence of education will tend to strengthen the natural interest of the 
Natives in the soil rather than to entice them to clerical professions, urban life and 
the artificialities of industrial compounds. Too much stress cannot be given to the 
fact that gardening and farming may have not only economic and social value, but 
also cultural and spiritual values. 

The general agricultural instruction for all pupils has been described in Education 
in Africa. These suggestions, which are repeated here, may be altered and adapted 
to suit the needs of different schools : 


The agricultural course should be required of every pupil and should cover five periods a week for 
one year and a half. Experience shows that the greatest emphasis should be centered in the actual 
carrying out of the projects. The classroom instruction should be reduced to the minimum and should 
only be used to supplement the projects and answer the questions that arise through actual doing 
of the work. It is especially desirable that pupils living in the neighborhood of the school should 
work out the projects in their homes. Another important requirement of success in this course is 
the employment of a teacher who should devote the entire year to the work. 

The course should include all the agricultural activities possible on a homestead—vegetable 
gardening, fruit growing, flower culture both for ornamental and selling purposes, care of chickens, a 
dairy cow, and swine. 

Through vegetable gardening, the students should learn how to plan and manage a twelve months’ 
garden for the intensive production of vegetables. They should be familiar with companion and 
succession crops and the best methods of rotation. They should learn the varieties adapted to season, 
how to manage the soil, how to plant, cultivate, control pests, and harvest both annual and perennial 
vegetables so as to get the best results. 

In the growing of fruit, the student should learn the soil requirements, methods of propagation, 
cultivation, spraying, harvesting, marketing of fruits. 

Through flower growing, the students should learn how to make and root cuttings such as 
geraniums, roses, and shrubs. They should become familiar with annual, biennial, and perennial 
flowers suitable for home decoration. They should learn how to make and manage flower borders, 
how to plan and plant the front yard. 

Through the care of chickens the students should learn the principles involved in breeding, 
incubation, brooding ; feeding for rearing, egg production and fattening ; housing and sanitation, 
diseases and parasites ; and the marketing of products. Wherever possible the students should learn 
how to breed, feed, house, and care for a dairy cow in order to produce sanitary milk and butter 
economically. In addition, they should learn how to breed, feed, house, and manage swine for the 
economic production of pork ; how to cure and market the products. 


The following course is designed for those who are to specialize in agriculture, 
either as teachers, farmers or farm managers : 


It is not possible to outline a course of agricultural instruction for all the African colonies. Sucha 
course should be formulated by the colonial specialist in agriculture in cooperation with the educa- 
tional authorities. A few general observations may be of value in the formulation of these courses. 
In addition to the elements already indicated it is urged that the four-year course should not only 
offer the science and practice of agriculture, but also general science, rural economies and sociology, 


66 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


teacher-training, and applied mathematics. The proportions of time recommended are: 50 per 
cent. for study and work connected with the growing of crops and the breeding and care of animals ; 
30 per cent. on studies related to farming, such as veterinary science, entomology, physics, biology, 
farm accounting, and shopwork ; and 20 per cent. on rural sociology, including history, sanitation 
and teacher-training. 

The increasing importance of what is called the Project Method in agricultural education 
makes it desirable to quote the following description of this educational method : 


“* The course of study is made each year to center on and support one particular branch of farming, 
so that the work of that year may be in some degree complete in itself, although at the same time it is 
preparation for the study of succeeding years. By this arrangement an excellent four-years’ course is 
provided, and yet it is possible for a pupil to enter for one, two, or three years and get full value for his 
time and effort. Furthermore, each pupil is required to undertake during the year a ‘ project’ in 
the productive agriculture about which his studies for the year center ; for example, the second year, 
while studying small animals, it may be the management and caring for a few hives of bees, or of a 
flock of poultry, or hog raising ; hence the terms ‘ project study’ and ‘ project work.’ In this 
project he makes his plans, carries out his work, does his own financing and marketing, and keeps 
careful records of the business, all of which is usually done at his own home, but under the direction 
of an instructor.” 


The first essential of an agricultural department is a farm, operated in such a way as to combine 
the profitable cultivation of the land with the educational use of student labor. The elements 
required to realize this important purpose have been outlined as follows : 


1. A man with sound ideals of education and business ability who likes to work with his hands 
and believes that well-directed farm labor has educational value. 

2. A farm, conveniently located and moderate in size, so that students may pass from work 
lessons on the farm to classroom lessons without undue loss of time. 

3. Practicai equipment similar to that required at the student’s farm home. 

4, A firm conviction in the minds of teachers and students that doing is more important than 
talking, so that all will regard farm work as a more significant test of educational advancement than 
written papers or recitations. : 

5. Payment of students for farm work on the basis of value of products rather than time spent. 
Work done for permanent improvement, or for the sake of the appearance of the farm, should not 
be charged against the crops. Students who are working to supplement their expenses should be 
tested on appearance work, such as cleaning up and filling gullies. 

6. So far as possible, only agricultural students should be employed on the farm, and the work 
should be so planned and supervised that its educational advantages are realized. 

7. So far as possible, only those crops should be produced for which there is a sure market at the 
dining hall, in nearby markets, or in the general market for staple cash crops. 

8. The buildings, like stock and equipment, should be maintained on an efficient basis. 


Traming of Medical Assistants 


The almost overwhelming task of improving health and sanitary conditions has 
already been discussed. There are the beginnings of training courses for medical 
assistants in two or three Colonies. The Union of South Africa has already initiated 
a full medical course for the training of Native physicians. Unfortunately the number 
of Native students prepared to take such professional trainingis small. There is also 
uncertainty as to the necessary financial support. The example of the Belgian 
Government in the Congo has not been adequately appreciated and accepted. It 
seems obvious that the first provision for medical training should be for medical 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 67 


assistants who can be prepared in three or four years, rather than the standard 
medical course of many years, with possibly some years in Europe or America. The 
technical requirements are well outlined in the following description of the course 
provided by the Belgian Government : 


The Government is now planning to organize a system of schools for the training of Native medical 
workers. As itis the purpose to train a considerable number of Native workers in a comparatively short 
time, the entrance requirements will be verylow. The chief requirements will be evidence of industry 
and good character. During the course provision will be made for instruction in reading and writing 
the vernacular and French. The general purpose of medical training will be to make it possible for 
the pupil to care for a microscope and to use it in the diagnosis of such important diseases as sleeping 
sickness, malaria, and hookworm, to make diagnosis of other Native ailments, to be conversant with 
the well-known remedies for these diseases, and to care for the minor surgical cases. The course will 
include three years of instruction, with observation and practice. The general course will cover dis- 
cussion of the qualifications and duties of a medical assistant ; elementary physiology and anatomy ; 
external causes of illness and external diseases, such as ulcers, infection, fever, pulse, asepsis and 
antisepsis ; general care of sickness with use of common remedies ; general idea of hygiene. The 
more advanced pupils will receive training in a special section in minor surgery and medicine. The 
minor surgery will include knowledge of and practice in blood letting, incisions, injections,prevention 
of hemorrhage, massage, reducing of fractures, and dislocations. The medical part will include study 
of symptoms with microscope examinations of such diseases as sleeping sickness, syphilis, and 
dysentery. There will also be experience in obstetrics and infant hygiene. Arrangements will be 
made for the periodic return of the graduates of the school from their villages in order that they may 
continue their studies. 

The schools will be provided with such technical materials as skeletons, anatomical models, wall 
charts, and microscopes. Hach institution will be located near a hospital, and daily hospital visits 
will be made. Pupils will be required to pass a government examination at the end of each year, and 
they will be granted a certificate as Native Medical Assistant when they have completed three years 
of training. 

The Government invites the cooperation of both Protestant and Roman Catholic missions. This 
cooperation will include the selection of a definite proportion of pupils by each group of missions, and 
arrangement will be made so that the pupils will live in hostels maintained under the direction of the 
various church societies. At present the Government maintains small training departments for 
hospital attendants at Boma and Leopoldville, and very limited instruction at four other centers. 
The plan described above requires a more extended and better organized work in five centers, to be 
increased as rapidly as possible. The realization of this plan seems to the Commission to be one of 
the most promising factors for health improvement observed in Africa. The activities of these Native 
medical workers should in the course of time eliminate the terrible influence of the witch doctor and 
very greatly improve the health conditions among the Native people. With the encouragement and 
aid offered by the Government to the medical work of the missions there is increasing hope for the 
future. 


Training of Religious Workers 


It will be generally agreed that character development through moral and 
religious training is the most vital concern of education. This aim has been given 
first place in the presentation of objectives. Its intimate relation to every school 
activity has been explained. General education organized and directed in accordance 
with the demands of a living consciousness of the neighboring community contri- 
butes directly to the preparation of religious workers. Courses in hygiene, agriculture, 
industry and recreation will furnish much of the content required in the education 


“a 


68 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of the religious leaders of the people. Side by side with such training the student 
will be prepared to receive the religious education specially required for his work. 
The elements of this training were carefully formulated by the Commission to West 
Africa, As they are equally applicable to every part of Africa, they are presented 
herewith as the basis for any adaptations required to meet local conditions : 


In addition to the types of leadership indirectly but vitally concerned with the character and 
religious life of the people, there must also be leadership that is directly concerned with the Churches 
and the other agencies that explain the religious elements of life, and lead the people in the service 
. of humanity because they are inspired by the love of God. The preachers of religion may also be 
teachers and farmers, but their training should prepare them to give the main emphasis of theirlives 
to directing the people to a faith in the Divine order of the Universe. It is peculiarly important to 
assist the African peopie to change their fear of the unseen as it is interpreted by the fetish doctor 
and voodoo priest to a belief in the fatherhood of God. The ability to show the relation of the Christian 
religion to Christian civilization requires as broad a knowledge of literature and of history as the 
best forms of education can supply. The influence of the Christian religion on the life of the 
individual and the community may be understood by those of limited training, but appreciation of 
the extent and variety of that influence will continue to grow as long as the human mind increases 
in its power of comprehension. 

The training of the religious worker should so far as possible presuppose the essentials of a 
secondary education. The special features of the training will be determined by the forms of the 
Church to which he belongs. It wiil be generally agreed that the elements requiring emphasis in the 
training of the African minister are as follows : 

1. The Native minister must have an appreciation of the Bible, of the Christian Church, and of 
Christian civilization. This means, of course, that there must be careful stydy of the Bible, some 
knowledge of church history, and some acquaintance with the social and religious history of European 
and American nations. 

2. Customs and traditions of the Native people must be studied and interpreted in the light of 
comparative religion and social science. The helpful elements must be distinguished from those 
that have been harmful and destructive. 

3. The application of religion to the life of the individual and the community must be studied 
and illustrations from actual life should be brought to the attention of the student. The educational 
adaptations urged in another chapter for the training of the individual and for the improvement of 
the rural and urban community shouid all have a part in the preparation of the Native minister. 


CoLONIAL NATIVE COLLEGE 


The apex of the educational system should be a central institution of colonial 
dimensions which would offer higher education to those who can profit by it. The 
success of the South African Native College in training Natives for professional work 
and in keeping them in South Africa points to the need for similar institutions 
elsewhere. It may be a decade or more before such an institution is needed in 
a colony, but the fact that it is in the scheme of things and will come, when necessary, 
will go far to create satisfaction among the Natives. 

The necessity for higher education for the African has already been presented. 
The advancing standards of the central station schools are preparing pupils for 
college education. Some of these pupils must have higher education either in Africa 
or elsewhere. Many of them are already in European or American colleges. The 
disadvantages of education outside of Africa are not only the financial and other 


PLATE VII 





AFRICAN SNOW PEAKS 
(a) Mount Kilimanjaro, seen from Moshi ; (b) Mount Kenya’s Twin Peaks, 


PLATE VIII 





THE INLAND SEAS OF AFRICA 


(a) On the Shores of Lake Tanganyika ; (6) Victoria Nyanza, near the Source of the Nile ; 
(c) Lake Nyasa. 


PLATE IX 





SAWYERS AT WORK, SOUTHERN RHODESIA 


PLATE X 


IZHAHWVZ AHL NO STIVA VINOLOIA AHL 





EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 69 


obstacles to education abroad, but much more the lack of adaptation to the needs 
of African students. It is obviously neither a just nor a wise policy to compel all 
Africans who desire college education to seek it in foreign countries. It is, of course, 
understood that collegiate instruction and training must be modified to meet the 
requirements of community consciousness as genuinely as elementary and secondary 
education. The significance of the community as it affects college or any other 
type of education is not that of a narrow geographical unit which would limit 
the knowledge and interest of youth to one place or one people, but a real appreciation 
of humanity wherever the students’ contacts are to be made. 

As yet education in East Africa has not developed sufficiently to warrant the 
erection of a college in any one colony. It may therefore be helpful to suggest the 
intercolonial arrangements which may be made for cooperation in the erection of 
colleges, Suggestion was made in Education in Africa that the three British Colonies 
in West Africa should combine to maintain one strong institution. The founding of 
the Achimota College in the Gold Coast may be accepted as a move in that direction. 
Even though the institution is being built and maintained by the Gold Coast Govern- 
ment, it seems probable that the work will be of such a character as to attract pupils 
from every part of West Africa. 

The natural grouping of the countries in East Africa is as follows : 

1. Kenya, Uganda and possibly Tanganyika.—The means of communication in 
these three areas would make it possible for pupils to travel to Nairobi‘in Kenya 
Colony, where an institution of university college standard could be maintained 
when pupils are ready for such an education. 

2. Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia.—With improved communi- 
cations between Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia, pupils from these three Colonies 
could attend an institution at Old Umtali, where railroad facilities, climate and 
land are all favorable to the enlargement of the present mission school to an 
institution of intercolonial responsibility. 

3. The Union of South Africa has already organized the Fort Hare Native College 
through the cooperation of Government, missions and Natives. The high standard 
and excellent adaptation of work in this institution may well be accepted as a type 
for all intercolonial institutions. It is also suggested that students from other 
Colonies may well consider the continuation of their education at Fort Hare rather 
than in England or America. 


EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION 


The most unique expressions of the responsibility of education for the community 
are the various forms of educational extension. A true consciousness of the com- 
munity drives education inevitably into activities that extend throughout the 
neighborhood. The organization of activities outside the schoolroom blend natur- 
ally and intimately with the life of the groups from whom the pupils come. The 
schoolroom becomes the school-home. The teacher lives in a part of the school. 
Village gardens become school gardens. Village needs become the concern of teachers 


D 


70 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


and pupils. This conception of education has created some of the most effective 
forms of education for the masses that have ever been known. One of the earliest 
forms of extension education is probably that of the Social Settlement in urban areas, 
now well known in all the important cities of civilized countries. Its influence has 
spread far beyond the number of settlements in existence, for a sense of social 
responsibility has taken a variety of forms in the urban districts. 

Government, schools, churches and sometimes commercial undertakings have 
organized agencies to improve the condition of the people. While these urban 
movements have probably influenced larger proportions of people than those in the 
rural areas, there are rural extension activities that are exceedingly effective. Most 
of these movements are directly applicable to rural Africa and they are herewith 
presented as they were recommended in Education in Africa. The enthusiastic 
reception and approval accorded these recommendations by Government, missions, 
economic agencies and Natives are an assurance that they may be adapted to every 
part of Africa. 


Farm Demonstration Movement 


1. The most important effort for the improvement of the rural community is known in America 
as the “ farm-demonstration moyement.” The plan was originated by Dr, Seaman A. Knapp, a 
remarkable agricultural statesman, whose work was made possible through the financial aid and 
educational leadership of the General Education Board. The economic value of the plan was made 
clear to the nation, and for some years past it has been adopted by the United States Government 
as one of its most important efforts in behalf of the farmers of America. The purpose of the movement 
is the increase of the productivity of the soil, undoubtedly the most important end in any country. 
The fundamental element in the plan is the principle that the most effective way of teaching good 
farming is to prevail upon one farmer in every neighborhood to cuitivate an acre of his land 
according to scientific methods of agriculture. The effect of such a plan has been that the farmer 
with the demonstration acre extends the plan to the remainder of his farm and the neighboring 
farmers soon follow his example. It has been shown that such an experimental plat is much more 
effective than the distribution of printed matter or even explanations by traveling lecturers. The 
economic and educational significance of the farm-demonstration movement is now gradually 
becoming understood. Communities have lifted themselves out of poverty. Schools and churches 
and roads have been built. The general average of community welfare has been elevated in many 
rural districts. School men have been impressed with the value of actual demonstration in instruc- 
tion and the schools are requiring that pupils shall “‘ learn by doing.” The details of the plan have 
been vividly presented by B. D. Gibson in the International Review of Missions for July, 1921 : 


“The agent first locates the strategic points in his district, then makes inquiries in these places 
and finds out in each a man who is approachable, open to new ideas, who enjoys a certain standing 
among his fellows and whose land is accessible to a large number of the neighbors. He talks to 
this man and persuades him to try the experiment of cultivating a patch of his land on new methods. 
This farmer is called a ‘ demonstrator.’ The agent then visits him once a month and the demon- 
strator cultivates his plot under the agent’s close direction. The surrounding farmers come to the 
field and meet the agent when he comes. Some give in their names as willing to experiment also 
and they are enrolled as ‘ cooperators.’. They watch the experiment, and when they see the increased 
yield under new methods they begin to think there must be something in it after all. The agent 
drives home the lessons by getting statistical returns of the yield and profits from farms run on 
the ordinary methods, compares them with the figures received from the demonstrator’s plats, and 
sets out a statement which appeals to the most conservative.” 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 71 


Home Demonstration 


2. Closely connected with the farm-demonstration movement is that known as the “ home- 
demonstration movement.’ The purpose is to enlist the interest of the women and the girls in all 
that pertains to the economic and social welfare of the home and the community. The plan has 
been very successful in the inculcation of sound ideas of sanitation, thrift, and morality. The 


essential features of the movement are given in the following quotation from the article referred 
to above: 


** At first there were only men agents, but it was not long before it was realized that the rural 
problems could not be solved without the women, that it was no use showing the farmer how to 
make more money from his crops if his wife did not know how to improve the standard of living 
at home and benefit from the extra money. The women agents are chiefly concerned with all that 
affects the home. There has thus been developed a second branch of the rural extension work, 
namely, home demonstration. As the men are engaged in showing the farmer how to grow more 
and better corn, the women agents are showing his wife how to cook it better, how to balance meals 
and vary dishes. The home garden usually falls into the woman’s province and the woman agent 
gives hints as to how it can be made to yield food all the year round and how the vegetables can 
be preserved for seasons when they are scarce. These home-demonstration agents are mostly 
women who have been teachers and who have taken a short special-training course in addition 
to their teacher-training. The organization corresponds exactly to that of the men, namely, state 
agents with county agents under them, and they work in the closest cooperation with them under 
the state extension work director. 

“The woman agent brings new ideas for labor-saving and money-saving—simple suggestions 
for making out of the common materials that abound on every farm some of the necessaries that 
would otherwise have to be bought at much expense and trouble from the distant town, and even 
some of the comforts which would otherwise be unknown. She holds demonstrations at the home 
of one of the farmers, and the neighbors come bringing their share of the necessary materials so 
that each may make the experiment for herself and prove its value. Occasions often arise also 
which enable the agent to give suggestions as to the general care of the home, ventilation, and care 
of the sick. She also organizes poultry clubs for women and girls, the members reporting at each 
meeting the success of their work, the number of eggs, and the number of chickens raised.” 


Rural Clubs 


3. To complete the circle of the rural family, the schools and the Government have combined 
to encourage the organizations of farm-makers’ clubs for the boys. These clubs are divided into 
two classes, those that are concerned with the growing of crops and those that have to do with the 
raising of livestock. The crop clubs include the staple articles of production in the neighborhood. 
The livestock clubs give special attention to the small animals that can easily be maintained by 
farmers of smail means. The application of this plan in the neighborhood of Tuskegee Institute 
is well described in the following paragraph from the article already quoted : 


*“‘ There are boys’ pig and corn clubs organized under the supervision of a state club agent for 
Negro boys. These clubs are carried on by the men county agents with the assistance of the rural 
school teacher and in holiday time of a local leader. Each boy gets his father to let him have a 
little pig or a small plot of ground or both. The boy is then responsible for the purchase of food 
and seed and for the subsequent welfare of his pig or corn plot. He keeps a record of all trans- 
actions, and the final profit goes into his own pocket. Prizes are often given for the finest pig and 
the largest number of bushels of corn per acre. Last summer the Alabama agents were asked to 
pick out the brightest boys and girls in their clubs and bring them up to Tuskegee for ten days 
for a short course of agricultural instruction. Ninety-five came and for those ten days were part 
of the institution. The impression was profound and a large number stayed on as regular students, 


They had many of them come up from the backwoods and had heard very little before of Tuskegee, 
and its work and ideals.” 


72 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Movable School 


4, Probably the most unique form of community education in rural districts is the Movable 
School used so effectively by Tuskegee Institute in carrying the influence of that great institution 
among the American Negroes of the rural districts. The school has had various forms in the 
course of its development and it is still used in different ways to suit the needs of different com- 
munities as well as to suit the equipment and personnel of the institution responsible for the under- 
taking. The following quotations present the essential elements of the school as they have appeared 
to competent observers :* 


“The first step in planning for a Movable School is to send out an agent to a neighboring com- 
munity to arrange for the coming of the school. This agent consults the local preacher, the teacher, 
and other community leaders. The plan is explained to them and they agree to begin the school 
on a certain day, and to continue it for three, four, or five days, as circumstances permit. The 
time is selected with due regard for the weather and the condition of the crops. As the farm houses 
in America are usually widely distributed, the distance varying from a half-mile to a mile apart, 
a farm home is selected as the center for the demonstration. The farmer and his wife agree to have 
every part of their home and their farm used as a laboratory for the occasion. Notices are then 
sent out to all the farmers situated at convenient distances from the scene of the school. At the 
time agreed the teachers arrive and the people assemble to share in the demonstrations to be made. 
The teachers have brought with them a variety of equipment, including whitewash, paints, and 
brushes; a churn and milk tester; farm implements ; first-aid equipment; and other articles 
that may be useful in explaining the simple needs of the home and the farm. Sometimes they 
bring with them specimens of farm animals that can conveniently be brought. . . . 

‘The one which we saw had been in operation for three days when we arrived, and already 
much had been set agoing. We reached the place in the morning about 10.30, after a long motor 
ride over a very rough and dusty road. Turning in at the gate and up a sandy path, the car stopped 
under a tree and we got out. Before us was the house, a wooden one with two rooms and a central 
and front veranda. It was in a rather dilapidated condition, and we saw a group of men busy 
repairing the steps and putting in a new support for the roof, under the direction of a teacher. 
After greeting we passed on to the open central veranda where a number of women and girls were 
busy at different things under the superintendence of a female teacher. Two or three were working 
on a bedquilt, some more were rebottoming chairs with cornshuck rope, others were making corn- 
shuck straw hats or bags. On a shelf at the side were various articles that they had been taught 
to make on previous days—mugs with handles, made from old tins, home-made fly-switches, sieves, 
dishmops, fly-traps of resin and castor oil, scoops and lots of other small things, as neat and ingenious 
as could be. There were also some basins with holes, which they had been taught to mend with 
melted rubber rings off old bottles, and a fireless cooker. No material was used except what all 
of them could find in and around their own homes. 

‘Passing out at the back, we wandered over to where a group of men were standing. Two 
boards were nailed to a strong tree, and a saw was fixed very simply between them. One man 
was setting it and the others watching with great interest. They had never before dreamt of doing 
anything to a saw which had lost its edge, but had just gone on using it as it was. It was a new 
idea to them to renew it. Presently the teacher called all the men round him and began giving a 
lesson in stacking potatoes. He started by asking if any of them ever found his potatoes rotting, 
and one after another said sadly, ‘‘ Sure!’ ‘“‘ Yes, I did!’ Very sympathetically the teacher 
drew from them details of how they did their stacking, and led them on to see where the fault lay. 
Then he proceeded to prepare a model stacking pit and showed them how to use it. He invited 
questions, and answered patiently till the subject was thoroughly understood. From that they 
all moved on to a tree where they had an object lesson in pruning, much to the dismay of the old 
farmer whose tree was so drastically treated, and after that they were taken on to continue a lesson 


* Chiefly from a statement furnished by Mrs. A. W. Wilkie, of the Gold Coast, Africa, 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 73 


on sanitary outhouses which had been begun the day before, and another on how to make a model 
henhouse. 


‘¢ We wandered back to the house to see how things were going there, and found the teacher 
calling all the women together to learn how to preserve eggs. Earlier in the morning they had been 
shown how to sterilize the bottles, spoons, ete.—and now everything was ready. First she drew 
from them by questions how they sometimes had far too many eggs, and other times * couldn’t 
get them nohow,’ and led them round to seeing the wisdom of providing in the fat times for the 
lean times. Then in the simplest way she showed them how to preserve the eggs in water-glass, 
using only things which every one of them would have. 


‘“‘ Leaving them again for the men, they were found deep in a lesson on how to choose corn for 
seed, and after that again came a demonstration on fertilizing the soil, another on making a decent 
path from the gate to the door, with some shrubs planted for decoration. 


‘* At this stage ‘ feeding time’ arrived, and from every corner baskets were produced. All the 
women had brought enough for themselves and their husbands and a little over, so there was no 
stint. Children also appeared on the scene bringing baskets, many of them carrying the little mugs 
they had been taught to make from old tins, They were inordinately proud of these ! We lunched 
on cold chicken and excellent pumpkin pie, cake and fruit. We noticed one old man sitting near 
us who was so delighted with his newly-set saw that he started trying its edge on a ladder, and 
he was so overjoyed with its efficiency that he had made quite a deep score before he thought of 
the ladder’s feelings ! 


“For our benefit, as we had to leave early, a program of games which should have come 
later in the day was taken after lunch. The teacher started by a few simple words about the 
importance of good healthy play as well as work, and then there was a men’s race, in which they 
had to take off their boots and run in their socks, coming back to where their boots were, and 
picking out their own from the muddled heap into which they had meantime been stirred, put 
them on and lace them up. When one saw the mixture of sand and boots one almost expected a 
protest, instead of which several who had stood by watching insisted on joining in too, and the 
whole-hearted fervor with which they entered into the search for their boots, and the breathless 
haste with which they laced them up, showed how thoroughly they enjoyed the fun. They were 
taught another excellent game of ball, which gave good exercise, much amusement, and a splendid 
opportunity for training them to lose a game gracefully. At the end they were asked not only to 
pass on all that they were learning day by day but to teach others these games, and to have a good 
lively half-hour of play every evening on their own farms. 


‘“* We left feeling that it would have been worth coming hundreds of miles only to see that mass 
of eager dark faces in which a new joy of life and work was dawning with the coming of the knowledge 
‘brought to them by this wonderful ‘ Moving School.’ ” 


These descriptions indicate the variety of influences that are possible when the teaching force 
and equipment are ample.” If this method is undertaken by the colonial governments in Africa 
or by the strong mission boards the activities may be as numerous as the needs of the African 
village require. The clustering of the Natives in villages is a real advantage for the application of 
the plan in Africa as against the widely distributed farm homes in America. It is to be hoped that 
the movable-school plan may be made possible through the cooperation of the colonial departments 
of agriculture, health, public works, and education with mission boards and possibly also with 
commercial concerns. It would be unfortunate, however, if the larger form of movable school 
should discourage the application of the principle in small movable schools possible to the institu- 
tions with only two teachers available for extension work. The success of the plan does not depend 
on the variety of undertakings but upon the skill of one or two itinerant teachers who will go out 
from the central school to the distant villages and teach by doing the simple elements of life needed 
by the men, women, and children. 


74 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Extension Activities of Government Departments 


All government departments are directly or indirectly concerned with the masses of the people. 
Departments of health and agriculture are very directly responsible for many phases of community 
life. Administrators of local areas usually exert very definite and intimate influence on large groups 
of Native peoples. The military and the police when they are properly organized and supervised 
not only preserve law and order, but also direct the people in movements vital to the health and 
general well-being of the communities. Departments of public works train large groups of people 
in many forms of skilled work. Thus Governments have been exerting varying degrees of influence 
on the masses. In some colonies the influence is substantial and noteworthy. In others it is quite 
limited. In some instances the development of the Native is actually retarded. 

Hitherto comparatively few of the government departments have appreciated adequately their 
responsibility for all the people. They have been rather exclusively interested in the technical 
phases of their work. The agricultural department, for example, has devoted most of its 
facilities to agricultural research and experimentation to the neglect of the practical instruction 
of the Native people. Even the health department has not seemed to realize its possibilities 
for the instruction of the Natives in sanitation and hygiene. The departments are not 
altogether responsible for the limitation of their influence. Inadequate funds and personnel, due 
to the small government appropriations, have undoubtedly necessitated the narrowing of the field 
of their activity. The first step in the widening of government influences is the determination of 
the Government to enlarge the community applications of every department. Even without 
enlarged appropriations, some improvement can be made. The important results to be realized 
are so directly beneficial to the economic and social well-being of the colony as to merit increased 
expenditures. 

It is difficult to exaggerate the influence of some departments of Government on the general 
welfare of the colony. 'Thoroughly-equipped health departments can in the course of time practically 
eliminate preventable diseases from almost every colony in Africa. In a comparatively brief time 
they can enlarge the habitable areas and increase the working power of the Natives. The agricultural 
department can spread a knowledge of the essential principles of soil cultivation among thousands 
of Natives and thus modify the productivity of the soil. While experimentation is of course 
necessary, every department of agriculture has already sufficient knowledge to warrant campaigns 
for the dissemination of agricultural methods among the people. If the military and police were 
prepared to give friendly aid and encouragement to the Native communities it would add much to 
the progress of the villages. They would thus represent not only the authority of law and the 
arbitrary power of government, but much more the friendly interest of the Government in village 
recreation and the common activities of the tribal life. The department of general administration 
can render a very great service to the masses of the people through the selection and education of 
focal administrators who will follow the example of those who are already working with the Natives 
not only as their rulers but also as their friendly counsellors. 


Educational Conferences and Periodicals 


The Governments and missions are increasingly recognizing the value of con- 
ferences and periodicals as a means of disseminating methods and ideals for the 
education of the people. The South African provinces have organized teachers’ 
conferences with considerable success. In some instances Government has given 
financial subsidies and arranged school vacations to make possible and stimulate 
the attention of Native teachers. Educational periodicals, such as Habari in Kenya 
and Mambo Leo in Tanganyika, under the editorship of Departments of Education 
or of Native Affairs, have been of great value in interpreting to the Natives govern- 


EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 75 


ment policies and in imparting to them useful information relating to their everyday 
needs and the significance of local events. Among the notable examples of these 
periodicals is the one published in Natal. 

Missions have long recognized the importance of these two agencies. Numerous 
conferences are held in various parts of Africa for the discussion of mission problems, 
and increasing prominence is given in them to the subject of education. The suc- 
ceeding chapters record instances in which the teachers employed in a single mission, 
or even the teachers of several societies in one area, assemble for conference. The 
Commission has been deeply impressed by the extent to which missionaries have 
labored to prepare vernacular publications for the people. Their frequently expressed 
desire for periodical literature is only beginning to take shape in action. 

Educational administration in Europe and America has made large use of 
teachers’ conferences and of publications. Sometimes indeed the multiplicity of 
meetings and of publications has been almost confusing. The beginnings of educa- 
tion in Africa, however, are remote from peril on these lines. There is every need 
for the stimulation and guidance of interchange relating to methods, policies and 
ideals. Dr. Stokes’? recommendation to the Commission is gladly transmitted to 
educators in Africa that ‘“ there should be district conferences for teachers every year 
and teachers’ conferences for leaders in closely related colonies every five years.” 
The successes of Negro education in the Southern States are largely traceable to the 
correlation of the minds and methods of teachers and workers representing the varied 
experiences of Government Departments of Education, mission schools, and extension 
work related to farms, homes, health, and the character needs of the people. 


CHAPTER IV 
COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 


OOPERATION for the development of Africa and Africans requires not only 
Ge harmonious activity of Government, missions, economic agencies and Native 
organizations, but also an appreciation of the special contribution of each to colonial 
welfare. The processes of cooperation may be as simple as the friendly exchanges of 
two neighbors or as complicated and intangible as the interactions of human society, 
whether colonial, national, continental, international or interracial. The objectives 
may be governmental, economic, educational, cultural or religious. 

Fundamentally, cooperation must spring out of an attitude of mind toward . 
others, an open-mindedness toward other people and organizations, a willingness to 
recognize their place and their value, an appreciation of their minds and their methods, 
and a determination to work with them, however much they may differ, so long as 
their objectives and their methods are sound. Nowhere in all literature has this 
quality of mind been so accurately described as by St. Paul, ‘“‘ Though I speak with 
the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass 
or a tinkling cymbal.”’ Gifts of prophecy, knowledge and faith are of no avail without 
charity. Bestowal of goods, willingness to be persecuted and burned count for 
nothing unless there be charity of mind. ‘Charity suffereth long and is kind; 
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth ; believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. For now we see 
through a glass darkly ; but then face to face, then shall I know, even as I also am 
known.”’ Such an attitude of mind is unexcelled and invincible in the reconciliation 
of divergent attitudes and contending forces. 

Cooperation as an expedient for the realization of socalled practical ends may 
often be reprehensible. Indifference to evil or injustice is not defensible. Blind 
toleration of oppression is not a cure for anything. Confident assertion of attainments 
and capabilities cannot permanently hide weakness and ignorance. Successful co- 
operation is not dependent upon the equality or inequality of those who participate. 
Differentiation of the cooperating members is more likely to produce notable results 
than the identity of types. There is no hope in the dogmas of superiorities based on 
unfounded traditions. There is no assurance in the claims of present equalities 
however emphatically announced by the sympathetic or the idealistic. Social 
relationships determined by “‘ muddling ”’ from one ‘“‘ safe’’ position to another are 
exceedingly uncertain and on a long view often dangerously wasteful. Sound 
policies can be formulated only on the open mind, determined to use the good and the 
true wherever they appear. 

The obstacles to cooperation are not only in the selfishness and prejudices of man- 
kind but also in the conflicting ideals of those who would serve. Selfishness appears 

76 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 77 


in those whose primary desire is to control and to exploit rather than to develop. 
There are prejudices of color, race, nationality, class and religion. The labels used, 
sarcastically or otherwise, to designate the socalled superior classes are ‘‘ Nordic,” 
** White,”’ “‘ Occidental,”’ ‘‘ Aristocratic ’’; the labels of inferiority are ‘‘ Colored,” 
** Oriental,”’ “‘ Mediocre.” Such flagrant contrasts of populations necessarily result 
in irritations, separations and hatreds. The most effective remedy is in the recog- 
nition of the values of the differentiated types. The rating of equalities and 
inequalities are comparatively unimportant and divisive. The appreciation of racial 
and other differentiations is sound and helpful. 

The conflicting ideals of those who would serve are in some instances as divisive 
and unfortunate as selfishness and prejudice. The more recent of these ideals are 
represented by such words as “ Self-determination,” ‘‘ Self-government,”’ “ Self- 
expression.”” They are the lineal descendants of the ideals presented in such words 
as “‘ Liberty,” “Independence,” “Democracy.” Contrasted with these ideals are those 
of “‘ Trusteeship,” ‘‘ Mandate,” ‘‘ Protectorate,” “‘ Colony,” all of which are said to 
be descended directly or indirectly from ‘‘ Paternalism,” ‘“‘ Empire,” ‘‘ Monarchy.”’ 
Liberty, independence and self-determination, with their comparatively unknown or 
untried experiments, are far more attractive to idealistic temperaments than trustee- 
ship, protectorate and colony, whose failures have often been allowed to overshadow 
their successes. The thought of freedom seems to have far more charm than that of 
direction and discipline and order. The antagonism to paternalism would almost 
sweep away the contribution of fatherhood to the development of mankind. 
Enthusiasm for self-determination forgets the social value of altruism. The testimony 
of history is however very certain and very definite that peoples and nations have 
required the help of others in their evolution through the various stages of civilization. 
The dilemma of the conflicting ideals cannot be solved by exclusive devotion either to 
self-realization or to development through the efforts of others. The solution is the 
integration of the two ideals through sincere and sympathetic cooperation. 

In view of the increasing misunderstandings resulting from conflicting ideals relat- 
ing to colonial governments, mandates and trusteeships, it is exceedingly significant 
that Mr. J. H. Thomas, the outstanding spokesman of the British Labor Party, and 
recently the Colonial Secretary of the British Commonwealth, should urge with 
emphasis the necessity of integrating all parties in their support of colonial service. 
In an address to the African Society, composed of colonial officers and students of 
African development, this well-known leader of labor interests said : 


The future of this great Empire is not, must not be, and never will be the prerogative of any 
class or any section, or any particular party. The defence of, the maintenance of, and the future 
of the great British Commonwealth will only be secure—and [ believe with all the sincerity of my 
nature that it always will be secure—because there is inherent, not in one particular party but 
in all parties and all sections, a clear and definite recognition of the fact that with all its limitations, 
with all its imperfections, with all the mistakes and blunders that have been made, the great British 
Commonwealth of Nations stands to-day not only as the greatest Constitution in the world, but the 
greatest factor for peace that the world has ever known. 

D2 


78 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


His further comments reveal his policy in words that sound strangely like a 
paraphrase of the Scriptural presentation of the ‘“‘ charitable mind ” already quoted : 


1 discovered that the only way to approach the problem was not to assume that the other people 
were always wrong, that the other people had all the vice, or that the other class was the only people 
who did wrong. I had to approach the problem and say that there is not only good and bad in all 
classes, but my duty is to get the best from all, instead of looking for the worst in other people. 
That was the spirit I endeavored to infuse into my very difficult task, and I want to say that in 
applying that, especially to Africa, there is nothing to complain of. 


That the policy of cooperation and reconciliation is neither blind expediency nor 
sentimental optimism is strikingly illustrated in the following testimony given after 
the visit of the Commission by a virile young missionary who describes himself as 
‘‘ rather more extreme in his views than the majority of missionaries ”’ : 


1 dare say we suffer in the attempt to interpret Utopia in the terms of immediate practice. We 
are too absolute, and from our secure position as missionaries we expect too much from those who 
are not similarly placed. We show too little consideration of the difficulties which we never have to 
face ourselves. lt was natural, therefore, that we should have been sceptical of the value of your 
ministry of reconciliation ; whilst fully appreciating your personal sincerity, we were doubtful 
whether it would serve any useful purpose to take protestations of altruism at their face value, and 
seemingly to ignore the real discrepancies between the creeds professed and the practices pursued. 

I am bound to confess that I have been met with resuits such as I never expected to see. I 
am coming round to the view that, in the pursuit of truth, candor may be given an exaggerated 
value ; that we may not take advantage of points of contact with others who see life from a different 
angle because we are so busy emphasizing the points of cleavage. Certainly your doctrine of co- 
operation is a living force, and is not a superficial remedy as I inclined to regard it, for now that you 
have left the country one begins to appreciate the effects of your message of goodwill. 

Mind you, I still hold that the unsparing criticism of the Colony for the last three years did much 
to break the ground, but I believe that you came just at the right moment to prevent criticism from 
degenerating into scepticism. I have looked up Matthew Arnold’s definition of criticism ; it begins 
in this way, ‘‘ A disinterested endeavor to learn the best.” I think that is what you have been 
teaching us; certainly 1 felt that spirit in our talk; as Dr, Dillard said, it was ‘‘ an elegant dis- 
cussion,” and certainly an education in the investigator’s method of approach. The warm and 
sympathetic attempt to see the value of our opinions from our point of view probably revealed more 
of the inward values of our system than any merely able and scientific dissection of our methods would 
have done. 


The number and variety of the parties who may cooperate for Africa and Africans 
as well as the forms of possible cooperation are too numerous for adequate presenta- 
tion here. The more apparent groups are briefly described in the first section of this 
chapter ; some of the existing forms of cooperation are outlined in the second section. 
The main lines of potential cooperation are those between the Colony and the 
population in the homeland ; the intercolonial exchanges, whether limited to the 
colonies of one Power or of several nations ; and the intra-colonial arrangements of 
two or more of the occupational or racial elements of a colony. There are also the 
cooperations of government departments, of missionary societies, of economic groups, 
of tribal units. It is neither possible nor desirable to catalogue the numerous 
forms of cooperation. What really matters is to recognize the spirit of correlation, 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 79 


collaboration or co-working for ends related to the welfare of Africa and Africans. 
Sir Frederick Lugard has wisely and clearly defined the ‘‘ Dual Mandate ” in Africa 
as the mandate for Africa and the mandate for the European nation accepting the 
responsibility for any part of Africa. Cooperation once genuinely initiated has no 
limitations and the “‘ Dual Mandate ” may multiply indefinitely into co-working social 
units that guarantee the welfare of all. 


UNITS OF COOPERATION 


The broadening conception of cooperation is revealing both new units of collabora- 
tion and the possibilities of still other units that can participate in the opportunity to 
develop a continent and its people. In the earlier periods of colonization there were 
the European governments to control, the traders to exploit, the missionaries to 
offer salvation and the Natives to be controlled, exploited and saved. The right to 
self-determination and self-expression advocated in behalf of all peoples, often to the 
lamentable extremes of license and futility, has been largely justified in the recognition 
of the right of all at least to participate in the processes of their own salvation and 
development. Thus the Natives are gradually being allowed a place in the scheme of 
things. Public opinion is shifting its approval from the method of working for people 
to that of willingness to work with them. 


The Home Population 


Recent years have witnessed an increasing colonial interest of the people in the 
“home ”’ or western countries. It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of this 
interest to the sound and effective development of Africa and other parts of the world. 
The motives have varied from time to time and from group to group. Sometimes it 
has been the desire for wealth and power, and sometimes it has been the altruistic 
concern in the wellbeing of others. Nowhere is the evolution of human society more 
apparent than in the growing determination to extend the areas of fairplay, the 
“square deal ”’ and the differentiated contributions of other peoples. No longer can 
we complacently sing ‘‘ and only man is vile,”” however much the race may differ 
from our own. 

Indeed the tide of racial concern often flows so strongly in the homelands, far 
removed from the actualities of racial limitations, as seriously to embarrass those 
who bear the burdens in the field. Theory and practice are often difficult to reconcile, 
not only because practice is reality, but also because theory is too frequently mere 
imagination based upon observation of the few or even of the exception that proves 
the rule. The brilliant student speaking our own language may charm us into the 
conviction that his identity with us is complete, and we gallop on to the belief that 
the millions whom he represents are likewise identical in characteristics and ideals. 
The misfortune of such spurious appreciation is not only the denial of the help that 
is needed, but much more the failure to value and encourage the special contributions 


80 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of a normally different people. Here is an emphatic call for the open mind that 
“ believeth all things, hopeth all things,” not only in other people but also in our own 
people enduring the heat of the tropical day. 


The Mandate System 


Still another unit of cooperation came dramatically into the colonial world 
through the mandate system of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The full 
significance of this remarkable unit is only beginning to be understood. Through 
this arrangement even the conceits and conventions and authority of a controlling 
nation may be scrutinized and tested according to the standards of the charitable 
mind, seeking the good of all and furthering the selfishness of none. The British 
Government, the largest of all colonial powers, has officially proclaimed that: “ As 
in Uganda Protectorate, so in Kenya Colony, the principle of trusteeship for the 
Natives, no less than in the Mandated Territory of Tanganyika, is unassailable.” 
This is the Magna Charta of colonial policy. Humanity will increasingly insist 
upon the realization of this fundamental principle throughout the colonial world. 
British Africa, French Africa, Belgian Africa, Portuguese Africa and Italian Africa 
must all pass the examination if they would remain in the service of Africa and 
Africans. Nor will the world remain indifferent to conditions in Abyssinia and 
Liberia even though they have a measure of self-determination. The only self- 
government that can be permanent is good government. Trusteeship, mandates, 
and independence are equally answerable to the tests of human welfare. 


The United States of America 


The most recent possibility in cooperation for Africa is that of a country like 
the United States of America, a nation with no governmental responsibility, much 
less a right to participate in any African movement, and yet with many potentialities 
that could be of great value to the country and the people. Already the educational 
experience of America has been cordially welcomed by colonial governments, missions, 
economic groups, and Native Africans. The school activities organized in America 
for extensive rural areas with their vast agricultural needs are obviously more like 
~ those required in rural Africa than those of urbanized Europe. The emphasis on 
the training of the masses of people widely distributed in America has its significance 
for schools for the masses in Africa. 

The educational responsibility of America for more than ten million people of 
African ancestry, living as neighbors in a very real sense, has given to the United 
States one very intimate interest in Africans not as yet fully understood either in 
America or in Europe. Consciously and unconsciously an adaptation of educational 
method has been in process for several decades. There have been mistakes and 
successes in the content of instruction, in the methods of teaching and in the plans of 
supervision. The five million freed slaves of fifty years ago living in rural areas of 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 81 


the Southern States had to learn many of the simple but fundamental lessons of 
community life. In the seemingly miraculous adjustment that has taken place, 
the school has had a responsibility far beyond that usually assigned to it either in 
Europe or America. There have not only been the adjustments required by a 
people without education and without experience of the normal community responsi- 
bilities, but there has also been the equally difficult adjustment of greatly differen- 
tiated races. All these are akin to the problems of education in Africa. It is hoped 
that this American experience may be made available through cooperation with 
those who are responsible for the development of Africa and Africans. It is believed 
that American altruism will soon realize the remarkable opportunity in Africa both 
for economic and human development. As American statesmanship and financial 
altruism have cooperated for health and general improvement in other continents 
of the world, so it seems certain that America will increasingly feel the peculiarly 
stirring appeal of the continent that supplied a tenth of the American population. 


In the African Colonies 


However worldwide may be the distribution of the forces of cooperation, the center 
of collaboration must be in the African colonies. The supervisory interest of the 
League of Nations; the public opinions and legislations of European peoples and 
parliaments ; the altruisms, philanthropies and educational experiences of America 
must ultimately find expression and realization through the colonial Government, 
economic organizations, missions and Native life of African areas. Statistically 
these elements of population are in striking contrast with each other. Numerically 
the European and Asiatic groups are in every case negligible as compared with the 
great masses of the Native people. In authority and influence the Europeans are 
determining factors in every area except Abyssinia. Even in that inland empire 
their influence doubtless far exceeds the outward forms of government. The Asiatics 
have made a substantial contribution to colonial development in East Africa, and 
their influence is among the permanent factors of East African life. Reference 
to the paragraphs on European influences in the colonial chapters reveals the re- 
markable achievements of Governments and the noteworthy activities of settlers, 
industrial organizers and commercial agents. Part II of each chapter summarizes 
the educational work of missions and Governments. 

Uganda Protectorate with approximately 3,200,000 Natives has only 1,300 
Europeans and 5,600 Asiatics ; Tanganyika Territory, 4,200,000 Natives, 2,500 
Europeans and 15,000 Asiatics; Nyasaland, 1,200,000 Natives, 1,400 Europeans 
and 600 Asiatics; Northern Rhodesia, 980,000 Natives, 4,000 Europeans and 
250 Asiatics and colored. The negligible proportions of both Europeans and 
Asiatics in these four areas are typical of those in the tropical colonies in both East 
and West Africa. It has been interesting to note the similarities of economic and 
governmental policies that are seemingly related to these proportions. The most 
notable example of this uniformity is the training and use of Native people in both 


82 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


skilled and unskilled occupations. In areas like Southern Rhodesia, where the 
Europeans are 33,000 and the Natives about 800,000, economic bars are being estab- 
lished to discourage the entrance of Natives into skilled occupations. The Union 
of South Africa is at present actively engaged in a vigorous effort to legislate this 
drastic limitation into a law of the land not only against Natives, but aiso against 
the Indians. The agitation seems to be largely the effort of white labor leaders to 
protect labor by methods from which labor itself suffered tremendously in the past. 
It is the irony of fate that the liberated should endeavor to fasten the shackles on 
those unable to protect themselves. Fortunately both the Union of South Africa 
and Southern Rhodesia are providing the elements that will ultimately protect both 
the Natives and white workers. Through a program of effective education for 
both races, cooperative minds and relationships are being developed so that the 
differentiations of races may become mutually helpful. 

Kenya Colony, with about 2,500,000 Natives, 10,000 Europeans and 36,000 
Asiatics, is at present midway in its Native policies between the tropical areas and 
Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Every effort is being made to train the Natives 
for skilled occupations. The Natives have both the advantages and dangers of a 
vigorous, capable, determined European population mastering the natural resources 
by the machinery and methods of a progressive civilization. There are also the 
Asiatics, three and a half times the number of the Europeans, who are bringing to the 
Africans their Asiatic heritage of traditions, characteristics, bartering and commercial 
skill, and numerous other influences too difficult to understand. The meeting of the 
Occident and the Orient in Kenya, with the Native masses at present largely on the 
side lines of the game, seems to typify much of the immediate future of East Africa 
and stimulates excursion of thought into the more distant future of that remarkable 
country. Hitherto the influences and even the competitions of the two groups have 
been much more of help than of hindrance to the African millions. There is adequate 
ground for wonder and possibly even for anxiety as to future developments. Certainly 
there is a vital need for statesmanship to assemble the multitude of facts and to order 
them into policies that will command the approval of international justice and 
guarantee the goodwill of the civilized world. 


The Union of South Africa 


The Union of South Africa is far and away the most interesting and significant 
unit of possible cooperation in all Africa. In some respects its potentialities are 
more real and arresting than those of even such great colonial peoples as those of 
Great Britain and France. That a million and three quarters people of Dutch, 
British and other European stocks now inhabit and control the most potent part 
of all Africa is stupendous in its meaning. The future of East Africa cannot be 
understcod without a real appreciation of this impressive fact. The old legal axiom 
that ‘‘ Possession is nine points of the law,” applied in the interpretation of the future 
influence of South Africa in Africa, means that the almost two million Europeans 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 83 


who have resolved to make Africa their permanent home are bound to have a tre- 
mendous influence in all the affairs of the continent, but especially in East Africa. 
Geographically the great Rift Valley and the marvellous highlands of East Africa 
are but the continuation of the table lands, mountains and valleys of South Africa. 
To disregard these elemental facts is sheer blindness and futile muddling. The 
question is not, Will South Africa have a part in determining the destiny of East 
Africa ? but rather, What is the contribution of the great virile people of South 
Africa to be to Africa and to Africans, white and black? In the forecast of the 
answer to this vital question, any thought of the extension of political control should 
be put aside as comparatively unimportant, because it seems obvious that the Union 
is not fitted to accept that form of responsibility for the vast areas of East Africa. 
Whatever exceptions there may be to this general policy, statesmanship points 
clearly to other lines of influence as more effective, more profitable and more helpful 
to all concerned. Already there are South Africans in all the East African colonies. 
They are settlers, missionaries and government officials who are contributing to the 
country and the people their South African heritage, both helpful and otherwise. 
The missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Churches in Central Africa are among the 
most devoted men and women working for Natives in any part of Africa. They are 
vigorous, resourceful, confident in all their work. Born in Africa, they are com- 
paratively free of illusions as to the limitations as well as to the possibilities of the 
country and the people. They do not need to adapt the methods of Europe and 
America; their manner of life is already of the soil and of the climate and of the 
population. The genuine missionary interest of the Dutch churches in South Africa 
and their liberal financial support provided for work in tropical Africa are guarantees 
of the altruistic motives that will more and more dominate South African activities 
for Africa. The scientific researches of South Africa in medicine, agriculture, anthro- 
pology, education and other realms are already looking northward toward Central and 
East Africa. Rhodes’ famous statue in Cape Town points dramatically to the North 
and prophetically urges the youth of South Africa to find both their opportunities 
and their responsibilities in that direction. The only possible obstacle to discourage 
or deter South African influence in all Africa may be a too limited vision of human 
rights and possibilities. There are some indications that the seeds of her failure in 
grasping the remarkable opportunities offered to her are in the little selfishnesses of 
racial and class prejudices. If South Africans can surmount the narrow appeals of 
class and race, if they can believe that the differentiation of race should be the basis 
of respect rather than of hatred, if they can follow the example of the Dutch mission- 
aries in Central Africa, they will realize their destiny and become a determinant of 
far-reaching significance not only to East Africa and Africa, but also to the Southern 
Hemisphere and possibly to the vital cooperations that must ultimately develop 
between the Occident and Orient. 

These colonial, national, and international forces find their expression in 
African life through the four clearly defined units of the Colonial Government, 
the economic groups, the missions and the Native people. 


84 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The Colonial Government 

Comparison of colonial Governments in Africa offers striking evidence as to 
the fundamental importance of Government to every phase of colonial development. 
Some areas with every advantage of physical resources, natural harbors and a 
capable Native population are stationary or disintegrating owing to their ineffective 
government. Others with comparatively poor economic resources and _ facilities 
and a sparse population are making commendable progress. Native autonomy and 
self-determination in government are not among the guarantees of progress of the 
country and the happiness of the people. The artificial boundaries separating areas 
and peoples that have much in common are in some instances a real hindrance to 
progress. The complete dependence of the colonial Governments upon the home 
population and the home Government has worked great harm in some cases and great 
good in others. The abnormal desire of the controlling Power to extend its language 
has in at least two colonies resulted in educational policies inimical to the Native 
languages. Two large areas of Africa with remarkable potentialities of resources 
and people are in a most critical condition, with seemingly little hope for the future, 
because the home Government as well as the nation are unable to develop the stability 
of policy required for peace and prosperity at home, much less the order and directive 
energy and wisdom for colonies thousands of miles away. Such drastic uncertainties 
would seem to be serious enough to warrant the hope that some concert of nations 
or at least of international sentiment and conviction should be formed, through the 
League of Nations or otherwise, to express disapproval of such unnecessary limi- 
tations and sufferings imposed upon any people or colony unable to protect 
themselves. 

While these rather extreme conditions are fortunately few in number, there is a 
very general need for more organized thought and practice in the colonial affairs of 
Africa. The two Education Commissions have been surprised and disappointed 
by the inability of many colonies to supply vital facts as to health conditions, agricul- 
tural possibilities, labor supply, tribal customs, Native production and other equally 
important information necessary to the formulation of sound government policies. 
The great responsibilities of trusteeship have thus been left largely to the initiative 
of individual governors and their associates. It has been a great and good fortune 
that the government officials have usually been men of real ability and notable 
-common sense who have put first things first. But the absence of plan is not fair 
either to the colonial officials or to the colony. Reputable and successful organiza- 
tions are not so conducted. Great responsibilities require not only capable men 
but also all the advantages and safeguards of organization. 

Though these observations on colonial government seem far removed from edu- 
cation, as that process is ordinarily understood, they are really basic to any program 
which involves the Government as a cooperating unit for education related to the 
welfare of Africa and Africans. The geographical chapters reveal the comparatively 
limited interest hitherto manifested by Government in schools. This is not altogether 
surprising when it is known that much of what has been called education has been 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 85 


lamentably unrelated to the actual life of the Native people. As sensible men dealing 
with realities rather than with theories and traditions, the government officials have 
devoted themselves first of all to the elimination of disease, the establishment of 
law and order, the building of roads, the construction of harbors, the encouragement 
of trade and agriculture and the winning of the confidence of the Native people. All 
this is obviously educational in the real sense of that much misused term. There are 
great variations in the extent and seriousness of even these activities from colony to 
colony. Historically too there has been a real evolution from the earlier periods of 
slave fortresses to the present provision for hospitals and laboratories and markets. 
Even now there are too many remains of the earlier forms of exploitation in some 
parts of Africa. 

Educationally there is now a new day in Africa. Most of the Governments are 
now actively aware that the greatest colonial asset is a people capable of participation 
in the life of the country. Material resources are inert and dead without labor. 
There can be neither production nor consumption of goods unless there is a normal 
population. Sound government requires not only sound economics, but equally 
and inevitably sound sociology. The population must be physically healthy and 
increasing naturally from the sparse distribution of the present time to the number 
required for social progress. Thus are government interest and concern proceeding 
from law and order and taxation into every phase of the community, including both 
recreation and the integrity and wellbeing of family life. It has been inevitable, 
therefore, that the progressive Governments should enter the field of such com- 
prehensive education with a vigor and a determination that promise to place the 
education departments among the foremost of all government activities. 

The ultimate success of this significant interest is, of course, dependent upon the 
personnel of government officers. Here there is remarkable basis for confidence. 
Colonial service in Africa has evidently attracted an unusually fine type of men. 
Unfortunately there are occasional exceptions to these high standards of manhood, 
not only in individual instances, but also in the general levels of colonial powers. 
There are individuals and sometimes groups of government servants who have 
entered foreign work because they could not compete in the more crowded fields of 
service at home. There are others who have come for the adventure or for the selfish 
sensations of authority over others. It is emphatically true, however, that the 
personnel of the successful colonial Governments are men who rank with the 
best in the home countries. Undoubtedly the most notable of all the impressions 
made upon the mind of the student of certain colonial Governments is their success 
in creating a consciousness of colonial career in the minds of the most cultured and 
capable youth of the land, whether that youth be of the higher or the lower social 
ranks. The unconscious and sincere acceptance of the title of “‘ government ser- 
vants ” by the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as well as by the 
lowliest of laborers, is a realization of the essentials of a cooperative mind, whether 
defined by St. Paul, by the distinguished labor leader or the virile young missionary 
already quoted. 


86 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The Economic Groups 

It has long been the fashion to depreciate and to deprecate and often to condemn 
the influence of settlers, traders and other people of commercial and financial interests 
in Africa, The futility and folly of indiscriminate condemnation of these groups in 
Africa are to be judged on the same basis as the thoughtless criticism of the economic 
groups in Europe or America. These groups are in Africa for economic profit and 
for the material development of the country. Their motives are avowedly similar 
to those of commerce, industry and agriculture everywhere. They must, therefore, 
be willing to be subjected to the tests of community welfare by those who have 
governmental responsibility, or by those who have an avowed interest in the Native 
people. The mistakes and successes of the economic organizations are in most 
respects identical with those in the countries from which they have come. Their 
business standards and their personal morals reflect those of their nationalities. 
It must be recognized, however, that removal from the corrective influence of public 
opinion in the more advanced home communities, and the absence of a sense of 
permanency of abode, have often stimulated and emphasized selfish interests to the 
excesses of a ruthless exploitation and to a disregard of the necessary conventions 
of civilization. The dangers attending the associations and interactions of a strong, 
capable people with a primitive people under the political control of the stronger 
are very real. Students of Negro slavery in America, for example, sometimes wonder 
whether the white or the black population suffered most by the relationship. The 
truth is probably that both suffered and both gained. 

With full recognition of the mistakes and injustices and dangers of economic 
undertakings in Africa, it is the considered conviction of both Education Commissions 
that the contribution of commerce, industry, mining and, above all, of agriculture 
to East, West, South and Central Africa has been absolutely essential to the progress 
of the country and the people. The geographical chapters of this Report present 
some facts relative to achievements of the traders and settlers in the areas visited. 
Without them there would be few, if any, roads, railways, harbor arrangements, 
trade facilities and many other necessities of modern society. The necessities of 
their organization have involved the training of Natives in many useful occupations. 
Literally, thousands upon thousands of the Native youth have “‘ learned by doing ” 
many of the important processes of industry, commerce and agriculture. The training 
and skill thus acquired have been of value not only as a source of income, but also 
for the molding of character. Habits of industry, perseverance, punctuality, 
regularity, order and thrift have been formed through the necessities of work under 
supervision. The personnel of the economic group far outnumbers those of both 
Government and missions. Their contacts with the country and the Natives are 
therefore much more extensive than those of other Europeans. ‘To discount or 
depreciate their potentialities in cooperation for colonial welfare is to disregard a 
fundamental factor in human society. 

Stories of the early colonial periods report many traders as mere adventurers 
seeking quick fortunes with little effort and little regard for business principles or 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 87 


the decencies of civilization. The Education Commissions have found practically 
no evidence of such types in the colonies visited. Colonial business and industry 
are usually extensions of large, reputable firms in Europe who have selected their 
staff in accordance with the well-known standards of modern business. Many of 
the employees are from the substantial classes of the home country. Their education, 
their business and industrial experience, and their long period of service compare 
favorably with the employees at home. The settlers and farmers are, as a class, 
noteworthy for their virility and culture. ‘They compare very favorably with the 
average of the home population. In the British Colonies, many of them are ex-Service 
men and officers who are starting life anew, with all the uncertainties of unknown 
elements in a strange country, and a new occupation. The qualities of personality 
represented by such a class at their best are more valuable to a new country than 
their industrial and agricultural preparation for their difficult responsibilities. The 
latter they have frequently to learn through trying and unexpected experiences. 
They deserve the appreciation and sympathy of those who are enjoying the comforts 
of well-established and well-known conditions at home. In contrast with both 
government officers and missionaries, both of whom are guaranteed the necessities 
of life and a return to their native land, the pioneer settler oftens burns his bridges 
behind him and risks himself and his progeny to the future of Africa. 

It is little wonder that the pioneers of trade, industry and agriculture should not 
fully appreciate the latest lessons of sound economics. The interrelations of com- 
merce and industry with general community welfare are only now being realized 
through the stimulus of a new social conscience. It has required the persuasions 
and the severities of organized labor to insist on many of the essentials of a sound 
industrial program. In some parts of Africa even labor seems determined to 
disregard its own experiences. It is vital to Africa and Africans, as well as to the 
economic groups, that they shall speedily learn that the problem of population is 
basic. On the long view there can be no permanent prosperity without hygiene 
and sanitation, the decencies of home, healthful recreation and an education that 
stresses all these, with sound elements of character underlying the normal development 
of every element of population. With such a conception of agriculture, industry 
and commerce, the economic groups will deepen and broaden their already great 
services to cooperation for a continent and its people. 


The Missions 


The value of missions as a cooperative unit for Africa and Africans is as divisive 
in discussions of Kuropean and American opinion as the estimate of traders and 
settlers or the “ place” of the Natives in the present and future of Africa. Students 
of African affairs have often been greatly surprised by the frequency of the unfavor- 
able comments on mission work and especially on socalled ‘‘ mission-boys.” It 
almost seems at times that one of the favorite amusements of travelers to and from 
Africa is the retailing of various gossips about the impudence, unreliability and 
incapacity of black boys who have been “‘ educated ”’ at mission stations. Next in 


88 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


order of frequency are stories of the sentimentality of missionaries who are reported to 
‘‘ carry on” with complete disregard for the actualities of African life. Recent years 
have witnessed an extension of this critical attitude to circles of thought in Europe and 
America. There is a kind of ‘‘ Everybody’s doing it” air about the conversations. 
It is the thing to say in the consciously progressive and strictly up-to-date gossip of 
the professedly intellectual circles. Several plays have been staged within the last 
three years to pander to and amuse home sentiment of this character. 

Possibly the most substantial stimulation to these attitudes in the home circles 
has been the various forms of beliefs, firstly in the right of self-determination for all 
people, and secondly, in the importance of international fellowship. Some of the 
exponents of these attitudes are, of course, serious, scientific students who have dis- 
covered the element of truth both in the rights of “ self’ and in the interdependence 
of nations and peoples of all languages, colors and kinds. Much of the talk is, 
however, sheer gossip by superficial listeners, eager to be sympathetic to oppressed 
people, who would be shocked if they discovered that many of their associates in 
ridiculing missions are those whose antagonism arises from their racial prejudices and 
their desire to make use of such prejudices as the basis of various degrees of Native 
exploitation. It has long been a matter of interest to observe the similarity of such 
gossip as to “ spoiling the black,” “‘ keeping him in his place,” “ the sentimentality 
of missionaries ” whether in America with regard to American Negroes and the “ home 
missions ’’ there, or in East, West and South Africa with regard to the Native Africans 
and foreign missions. There are likewise in America the professedly progressive who 
unconsciously join with the selfish and the prejudiced in their condemnation of ‘‘ home 
missions ” but on the entirely opposite ground of the supposed blindness of missions 
to the right of Negro self-determination and self-expression. All these attitudes 
toward missions obviously demand consideration, whether they originate in prejudice 
and selfishness or in honest convictions, however mistaken. 

The influence and work of missions are not matters of theory and conjecture. 
There is abundant evidence in many parts of the world and in every part of Africa 
on which an accurate judgment can be made of their methods and of their results. 
Every colonial chapter of this Report gives concrete, definite facts both as to the 
shortcomings and as to the achievements of missions. The general chapters summarize 
much of the evidence in statements of what is now being done satisfactorily and in 
recommendations of methods to correct errors and to supply deficiencies. Careful 
perusal of this evidence will show that missions have committed about the same 
proportion of errors as the Governments and the economic organizations that have 
been compelled to deal with Africa on the basis of European or American experience. 
The three European parties have suffered from the conceits of language and nationality 
and color. Each has brought the best they knew in their home country. This has 
been the strength and the weakness of their methods and their objectives. 

The evidence shows emphatically that the special value of the missionaries’ work 
has been their interest in the people of Africa as distinguished from interest in the 
material resources, the special concern of the economic party, and colonial authority, 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 89 


the necessary responsibility of Government. The human interest of the missions, mis- 
taken though it may at times have been in form and application, is a tremendous 
asset of Western civilization, as against other kinds of interests manifested in all time. 
Those who are concerned in the self-expression or self-determination of races will do 
well to ascertain how far missionaries have preceded them in this interest. Likewise, 
those who believe in the interdependence and altruism of nationalities will find cause 
for appreciation and even gratitude in the decades upon decades of missionary service 
to other peoples and other parts of the world, however widely separated by oceans 
and languages and colors and strange customs. The missionaries have not been 
content merely to write and talk about these interests in others. They have literally 
gone out “ unto the uttermost parts of the earth,” where diseases raged and the tropical 
heat burned and famine was abroad and, worst of all, where the insignificant ones 
spurned them and all their good intentions and their eager longings to serve. Mission- 
aries have subconsciously or unconsciously for many years been putting into practice 
what social science and sound economics and common-sense are now urging, namely, 
that humanity is the primary consideration in good government, good business, good 
society and a good world. They are thus the pioneers of effective internationalism, 
sound colonial policy, coordination of labor and resources, and many other improve- 
ments related to the conservation of humanity. 

In the search for concrete evidence to prove or disprove these emphatic conclu- 
sions, students of missionaries and missions are urged to seek out the answer to such 
questions as: Who are the interpreters of the Native languages and customs ? Who 
know the Native home, the relationship of parents to children, of children to each 
other, of the facilities and supplies of food and its preparation? Who know the 
position of women in the tribe and in the colony, their influence, their burdens, their 
capacities, their responsibilities ? Who know the ravages of disease in the little 
communities, the preventable causes of sickness and death, the reckless drains on 
vitality ? Who care whether recreations are healthful and moral or devitalizing and 
demoralizing ? Who realize and condemn the oppressive systems of tribal customs, 
of labor peonage, of government indifference or severity ? Who strive to impart the 
influences of education and to open the door to the discoveries of civilization ? Who 
see behind the black countenance the potentialities of manhood and womanhood ? 
Above all else, who are willing to give life itself that the inspirations of great ideals, 
great truths, great faiths may become motivating powers in the minds of African 
people? The answers to these questions asked in Kast, West, South and Central 
Africa have convinced the Education Commissions that missions are vital to all co- 
operative effort for Africa and Africans. Furthermore, they are vital to Western 
civilization and Christianity, for their little churches and their imposing cathedrals 
distributed far and wide throughout Europe and America are cultivating a spirit of 
service that cannot be limited by language, color, nationality or previous condition 
of servitude or custom. 

The type of men and women in the mission fields represent a great variety. There 
are the highly emotional and narrowly dogmatic ; those of limited knowledge and 


90 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


small usefulness. There are men and women of genius, intellectually capable, re- 
sourceful, heroic, esthetic. The majority are just ordinary people of average ability 
and versatility, similar to those of the people in their home country. But there is one 
respect in which missionaries as a class differ vitally from others. The inspiring and 
directing power of their life, as also of the life of individuals in every group, is a 
consciousness of religion as manifested by Jesus Christ, giving the motive and the goal 
for the regeneration of the individual and society. As cooperative units for Africa 
and Africans, their fundamental purpose is to pass on this inspiration and power to 
every African. 


The Native People 


Fundamentally, the most important of all the cooperating units are the Native 
people. Historically, this conviction seems ridiculous. The conceits of race and 
color and nationality and language are all against the belief. But science and states- 
manship and common-sense and Christianity give emphatic support to the conclusion. 
The stone rejected by the builders must at least have a real part in the colonial 
structure. This does not mean the denial of altruism or brotherhood. It does not 
mean that the nations who have more or less attained are to deny their attainments 
and sentimentally assert identity and equality where they do not now exist. It does 
mean that the development of Africa is involved in the development of Africans. 
The fact seems now so obvious to many as to encourage extreme views of independence 
and self-realization. 

Statistically the millions of Native people as against the mere tens and hundreds 
of Europeans of all classes in Africa establish the inevitable importance of Africans 
in all forms of cooperation. There are the African masses and there must be in- 
creasingly the African leadership. Native masses and Native leadership are the 
essential complements of African society. White leadership is a help, and an essential 
help, but it can never take the place of Native leadership. The inconsistency of 
Europeans is never more apparent than in their advocacy of racial segregation and 
at the same time their denial of facilities for the training of Native leaders. Sound 
policy requires the sincere cooperation of both white and Native leadership supple- 
menting each other for colonial welfare. 

The great obstacle to interracial cooperation is in the fact that consciousness 
of racial differences is permitted to degenerate into emotional antagonism and mis- 
understanding and sometimes into hatreds. Often a spurious sympathy becomes a 
disagreeable pity for those who differ from us. Probably the most certain of all 
cures of these unfortunate attitudes towards Africans is the determination to under- 
stand them, to know them, to recognize their present status as a stage in evolution 
similar to those through which all humanity has been passing. It is the conviction 
of the Education Commission to East Africa, as it was of the Commission to West 
and Central Africa— 


that the past development and present status are normal states of human society, whether that 
state be cannibalistic, barbarous, primitive or civilized. That African groups are now distributed 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 91 


among these various stages merely proves that they are passing through the normal processes of 
development. The endeavor to prove the inferiority or the equality of the African people is futile. 
The important problem is to determine their present condition and the character of their response 
to the influences of civilization and Christianity. Even in the hurried tour of the Education Com- 
mission, every member of the party observed numerous evidences of the responsiveness and impro- 
vability of the African people. Many tribes have a folklore of homely wisdom, long and dignified 
stories of ancestral achievements, and interesting traditions for the guidance of individuals, families 
and tribes. There are Native songs and games and other forms of amusements comparable to those 
of primitive people of other continents. The language of the drum in every part of Africa always 
awakens the interest of the traveler and recalls similar methods of communication used by the 
ancestors of civilized nations. The linguistic ability of the Native Africans is recognized by all who 
know Africa. An adequate study of the languages will undoubtedly reveal many important qualities 
of African mind and character hitherto unknown. Even the casual observer is impressed by the 
handicraft of many tribes. There are goldsmiths, copper and iron workers, weavers of fibre and 
wool, and those skilled in pottery, leather, wood and ivory. While much of the work is crude, it 
compares favorably with that of the ancestors of civilized people at the same stage of development. 


The response of Africans to all forms of training and education is certain evidence 
that every effort on their behalf is worth while. In America the educational attain- 
ments of Negroes are sufficient both in quantity and in quality to convince the most 
sceptical that education pays from every point of view. Honest observation of 
educational results in any African colony supports the American experience. Just 
as it has been the custom in some circles to bemoan the selfishness of the trader and 
settler with blind indifference to his vital contributions, so it is colonial gossip that 
‘education spoils the blacks.”” The shade of truth and the extent of error in the 
charges should normally have stimulated the economic group to sympathize with 
the friends of Native education and cause them to seek the real truth. Unfortunately 
the thoughtless remarks of both traders and government officials too often encourage 
the exaggeration of Native failures in education, Their eager search for the school- 
trained boys is, however, proof enough of their actual belief in Native schools. Every 
chapter of the Report confirms and supports the emphatic criticism of many school 
processes. Missionaries and school authorities are without doubt better acquainted 
with these limitations of both the quantity and quality of Native education than 
any other colonial class. 

The educational needs of the Natives are not fundamentally different from those 
of Europeans and Americans. The great difference is in the fact that the mistakes 
and omissions of European methods and objectives are more drastically obvious in 
Africa than they are in Europe, where the responsibility of the school is shared by 
the home, the Church, organized industry, the State and the numerous influences 
of.a civilized community. Special adaptations are required in Africa, and others in 
Europe, but the major changes are as much needed in the more advanced nations 
as in the primitive communities of Africa. The increasing and insistent demands 
for such changes throughout Europe and America are emphatic indications of the 
futility of much of what is now called education in those continents. It would be 
folly to suppose that education can ever be indifferent to the great achievements of 
humanity in whatever form they have appeared. The genius of art and music ; 


92 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the inspirations of the great literatures ; the historical records of the joys and sorrows, 
of the failures and successes, of the hopes and disappointments of humanity from age 
to age, must be and will be the eternal possessions of every people who are to have 
any real part in human advancement. Any educational adaptation that excludes 
or even minimizes these magnificent inspirations must be condemned with all 
emphasis. Hence it is that the recommendations for every colony have urged a 
system of education that provides for advancement from the lower standards to the 
highest and best that is known. Only such provisions can guarantee the adequate 
and effective participation of Native leadership in the evolutionary processes necessary 
to the welfare of Africa and of Africans. 

The real message of adaptations in education at the present time is akin to that 
of Christ when He placed the “ child in the midst.” It is a call to realities both in 
the realm of inspiration and in the realm of service to the “little ones ” and to the 
little things of the earth. Always there is a tendency towards the formal and the 
socalled great. ‘‘I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that Thou 
hast hid these things from [those who think themselves] wise and prudent and hast 
revealed them unto babes,”? prayed Christ as He lamented the artificialities and 
conceits of traditions and conventions and rejoiced in the revelations that came to 
the meek, to the open-minded, to those whose very necessities helped them to feel 
and to understand the realities that matter. So it is that what are called the 
“simples” of educational adaptations are basic in all education, whether of the 
masses in Africa and Europe or of the leaders in those continents, whether in provision 
for health and morality or in the search for the beautiful and the inspirational. 


FORMS OF COOPERATION 


It is exceedingly fortunate and significant for the future of Africa and Africans 
that there are substantial illustrations of practically all the important forms of 
‘working together’? for colonial welfare. Probably the most definite illustration 
of recent action in this direction is the organization and work of the British Colonial 
Advisory Committee on Native Education in Tropical Africa, and the extensions 
of this organization in similar committees in practically all the British colonies as 
well as in each of the provinces of the Union of South Africa. The adoption of this 
form of organization by other Colonial Powers would mean a really new day in 
colonial policies and a new day for Africa. It is to the credit of the King of Belgium 
that a permanent ‘‘ Commission for the Protection of Natives” was appointed 
several years ago. While the personnel of this Commission is representative and some 
work of value has been done, the responsibilities of the Commission are too limited 
and the administrative facilities are too inadequate to enable the Commission to 
realize the objectives and wishes originally intended by the King and his Government. 
»s: The forms of cooperation outlined in this Report, as well as in the Report of the 
Commission to West and South Africa, deserve careful study because they suggest 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 93 


many important principles and methods for the encouragement and direction of 
future efforts in co-working. The variety of the organizations and movements is 
surprising. Some of them are formal and definite ; others are little more than the 
agreement of interests and minds. They are usually, however, in sharp contrast 
with all movements rooted in distrust, antagonism and war, whether of words or of 
bullets. Real cooperation requires the “‘ charitable mind ”’ as the directing force, 
whether the objective be elimination of disease and oppression or the encouragement 
of justice and the extension of opportunities to all. 

The rapidity of developments in Africa at the present time demands a very active 
interest in cooperation as a method of work. What may be called the ‘‘ compart- 
mental method” of human endeavor is proving to be wasteful and dangerous. 
It was inevitable in the early periods that each group should work in its own little 
or big compartment without regard to the inter-responsibilities of other groups 
that could help or hinder. There was, unfortunately, every encouragement to these 
divisions. Geographical distances were immense, and workers, whether governmental, 
economic or missionary, were hardly conscious of each other even within their own 
organizations. Government agencies for health and for agriculture were too often 
mutually exclusive and so through all the compartments. Mission societies have 
often been competitive in their rush to “ occupy the field.””. Even within the same 
society there have been an independence and an exclusiveness that have hampered 
and wasted the potentialities for mutual help. The blindness of the traders to their 
dependence upon the farmers has limited their profits to a negligible proportion of 
what they should have been. 

It is obvious that rigid ‘“‘ compartments ”’ must be replaced by “‘ departments ”’— 
mutually helpful activities and attitudes, first, within Government and missions and 
business and Native life, and, secondly, cooperation of all for the good of each. Life 
isan unity. Colonial welfare is dependent uponall. Africa and Africans have inter- 
relations of vital significance. Even continents can no longer live alone. 


Government and Cooperation 


The extent of cooperative activities in colonial Governments differs widely 
according to the European nation in control and also according to the Governor 
in office. The adoption of cooperation as a policy appears to have been left to indi- 
vidual initiative. There seems to have been a surprising absence of continuity and 
system in the determination of policies for the colonies. The following illustrations 
and observations are offered for the consideration of governmental authorities. 


Inter-deparimental Cooperation 


The government unit of cooperation is the single department and the officer 
or officers in the field carrying out the responsibilities of that department. Collabora- 
tion of activities, whether among government officers or between government and 
non-government agencies, rests finally with the local officers. Being sensible men, 
a considerable degree of correlation has developed naturally in many parts of every 


94 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


colony. The spontaneity and reality of such co-working are often superior to any 
systematically stimulated and forced relationship. It must be urged, however, 
that the advantages of cooperation are too vital to be left entirely to the chance 
interest of the individual officer. 

The normal center of government cooperation, both internal and external, is 
the Governor. It is he who must make possible and encourage all forms of co- 
working. In this vital responsibility he has two agencies of special value for the 
realization of his opportunity. The first of these is an officer or a department whose 
duty it is to assemble and interpret facts as to phases of colonial life with which 
Government is concerned. Inthe well-organized European or American Governments 
this responsibility is shared by the Census Bureau and by special division of different 
departments. In the simpler colonial Government the work could be centralized 
into one division. There should, however, be an organizing center in the home Govern- 
ment to guide the colonial Governments and to assemble and interpret the facts for 
all the colonies of each controlling nation. 

The second agency of cooperation for the service of the people is the Educational 
Department, uniting the educational work of Government, missions and other 
organizations. The school in the service of the community can carry the influence 
of all Government departments to every phase of life. The chapter on ‘‘ Objectives 
and Adaptations” in this Report outlines the varied potentialities of schools concerned 
in health, agriculture, industry, home, recreation and the sound character of indi- 
viduals and communities. Under the leadership of the Government the school thus 
becomes the integrating agency, not only of all government departments but also of 
missions, economic organizations and Natives, for the development of Africa and 
Africans. 


Cooperation of Government and non-Government Units 


The pervasive quality of cooperation practically defeats the possibility of dif- 
ferentiating the varying forms. The logical implication of interdepartmental coopera- 
tion compelled the inclusion of all agencies in the preceding paragraphs. Hence 
there remains now only the mention of certain forms already implied, especially those 
related to education. The most important of these has fortunately been realized 
rather generally in Colonial Advisory Committees on Native Education. The following 
quotation from a Memorandum on an Educational Policy for African Colonies 
summarizes the considered opinion of practically all who have given thought to 
cooperation for colonial education : 


Sound educational policy in Africa requires the active cooperation of Government, missions, 
settlers and traders, and Native people. At present possibly 80 per cent. of the schools are main- 
tained by the missionaries. The failure to command or win the cooperation of the other three 
groups is a real misfortune, not only to Native welfare, but also the best interests of the colony. 
If the almost negligible number of Europeans in Africa are to be successful in transferring the in- 
fluences of civilization to the African millions, they must unite their various contributions and as 
soon as possible invite Native leadership to share their responsibility. The following observations 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 95 


are proposed for the consideration of those who would encourage the cooperation of all parties in 
the education of the African people : 


(1) That it is the right and duty of the Government to make certain that African youths are 
educated so that they may participate effectively and wisely in the life of the colony. 


(2) That the Government should give every encouragement to mission schools organized accord- 
ing to required standards. 


(3) That economy suggesis the proper order of government expenditure to be: first, supervision 
of schools; second, improvement of existing schools; and third, organization of government 
schools. 


(4) That every effort should be made to enlist the sympathetic aid of settlers, traders and 
industrial leaders. 


(5) That the Native people should be encouraged to participate in every activity pertaining to 
their education. 


Government Councils 


Colonial Governments have devised and adopted various councils and committees 
to provide varying degrees of participation in governmental direction. The principal 
forms are as follows : 


(a) Legislative and Executive Councils are usually composed of a government 
majority and a minority of non-government representation. Practically all these 
include representatives of the economic groups. In the West Coast Colonies there 
are also Native members. In one British colony a representative of missions was 
admitted in 1924. 

(b) The Lukiko or Native Council of Uganda was established in 1900 by treaty 
between Great Britain and the Kabaka and Chiefs of Uganda. The significant pro- 
visions of this Treaty are as follows : 


The Kabaka of Uganda shail exercise direct rule over the Natives of Uganda to whom he shall 
administer justice through the Lukiko or Native Council and through others of his officers in the 
manner approved by H.M. Government. The jurisdiction of the Native court of the Kabaka of 
Uganda shall not extend to any person not a Native of the Uganda Province. 

The Lukiko or Native Council shall be constituted as follows: In addition to the three Native 
Ministers who shall be ex-officio members of the Council, each chief of a county (twenty in all) shall 
be ex-officio a member of the Council. . . In addition, the Kabaka shall select from each county 
three notables whom he shall appoint during his pleasure to be members of the Lukiko or Native 
Council. The Kabaka may also in addition to the foregoing appoint six other persons of 
importance in the country to be members of the Native Council. . . The functions of the 
Council will be to discuss all matters concerning the Native administration of Uganda and to 
forward to the Kabaka resolutions which may be voted by a majority regarding measures to 
be adopted by the said administration. The Kabaka shall further consult with H.M. Repre- 
sentative in Uganda before giving effect to any such resolutions voted by the Native Council, 
and shall in this matter explicitly follow the advice of H.M. Representative. 


(c) Transkeian Native Councils are among the most interesting forms of Native 
participation in government in any part of Africa. They are an intermediate step 
toward a larger recognition of Natives in legislation and administration. The origin 
and character of the councils are outlined in the following statement by an officer of 
the South African Government : 


96 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


In 1895 the Government created district councils in four districts and since then it has allowed, 
but not compelled, other districts to join this number, the policy being not to force the system on the 
people but to allow them to adopt it if they thought it in their interest. There are now 18 districts, 
in each of which is a district council consisting of the magistrate and six members. Some of the 
members are nominated by the government and some elected by the Natives. These district councils 
meet quarterly or oftener and advise the magistrate regarding local matters. Each district council 
nominates two of its members as members of the general council. The Government nominates 
another member, and these members together with the magistrates form the Transkeian Territories 
General Council, which consists at present of the chief magistrate as presiding officer, 18 resident 
magistrates and 54 Native members. The Council meets once a year and the sitting generally 
lasts a fortnight. Matters discussed by the Council are such as Native education, marriages and 
inheritance, diseases amongst stock, control of commonages. The procedure is parliamentary in 
form, and a perusal of the Annual Blue Book containing the record of the proceedings would show 
that the Natives have a distinct mastery over parliamentary procedure. Indeed, the dignity of 
their deliberations and the soundness of their opinions would put to shame many state legislatures 
or provincial councils. 


(d) Native Councils and Native Chiefs have long been recognized in many of the 
colonies. Some of these arrangements are merely nominal or conveniences of admin- 
istration. The wiser Governments are increasingly recognizing the importance of 
Native experience and thought. 


Missions and Cooperation 

Movements for cooperation among African missions are far-reaching in extent 
and genuine in character. Their eagerness to learn methods of improving their 
organizations and their activities are most impressive. Their willingness to be sub- 
jected to the tests of modern thought and experience in other parts of the world is 
indicated by their insistence upon the formation of the two Commissions on Educa- 
tion whose Reports they are so sincerely accepting. Both in the home countries 
and in the colonies they are meeting regularly in conferences and committees to 
exchange experiences and to search for ways and means of making their work more 
effective. In some instances, Protestant and Roman Catholic missions have a 
measure of exchange and cooperation that may develop into larger meaning and value 
as their acquaintance deepens and extends. The notable instances of these relation- 
ships are in the Rhodesias and South Africa. It is hoped that the Advisory Com- 
mittees on Native Education may encourage these mutually helpful relationships. 

The coordination of missions from different nations in the various African colonies 
is one of the most effective forms of international relationship in existence. Many 
of the colonies have various combinations of British, American, French, German, 
Scandinavian, Belgian, Italian missionaries of numerous Protestant Churches and 
several Roman Catholic societies. They meet on African soil with their common 
devotion to the African people—an achievement and a relationship which may be an 
emblem of the world unity so much desired. 

Among the most effective agencies of missionary cooperation are the British and 
American Bible Societies. These organizations, which all the Christian Churches 
serve in common, have made possible the translations of the Bible into many African 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 97 


languages. Their agents are men with an unusually wide and thorough know- 
ledge of African peoples. The British and Foreign Bible Society has published 54 
different versions in the areas visited by the Commission. The volumes circulated 
in Abyssinia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1923 were not far 
short of 50,000. In Uganda the demand for Bibles in 1923 was 2,600, for eleven 
months in 1924-5 it rose to over 21,000 volumes, largely as the result of Native 
earnings in the cotton harvest. The desire of the people for the Scriptures is 
illustrated by the demand in Nyasaland for 30,000 copies of the recently pub- 
lished first edition of the complete Bible. The headquarters of the British 
Society in Addis Ababa, now about to be rebuilt, are referred to in a later 
chapter. A Bible House is also about to be erected in Mombasa as a center for 
the great districts of British East Africa. 

There is an increasing collaboration in the production of religious and general books 
for Africans. European and American missionary societies united some years ago to 
investigate the need and to supply the demand. Even with the very limited funds 
much has beendone. A newmovement for the study of African languages was initiated 
in 1924. It seems now likely that an international cooperation for this purpose may 
include governments and missions with suitable staff, equipments and funds to do a 
thorough piece of work. 

The preparation of missionaries for Africa is probably receiving more thought than 
the preparation of government servants and commercial employees. Missionaries 
from Africa and preparing for work in Africa are going for training in education to the 
universities of Europe and America and for special observation of American educa- 
tional experience in American schools for Negroes. There are training centers in 
Belgium, France, Portugal and Great Britain for missionaries from other countries 
who desire to learn the language of the colonizing nation and to acquire an intelligent 
and sympathetic understanding of the policies of that nation. Thus American and 
British missionaries spend some time in Brussels; Swiss, American and British 
study in Lisbon; and Germans, Scandinavians, Swiss and French take courses of 
study in England. 

Union efforts and organizations are increasing in number and becoming more 
specialized in purpose. Among the more important of these already realized or 
proposed are union schools for the higher or specialized training of Natives; African 
centers in high and healthful regions for missionary vacations and for schools to care 
for missionary children; hostels at ports like Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam, and Beira ; 
joint work in missions in urban centers to which Natives from various tribes migrate ; 
union purchasing agencies at the commercial places ; provision for expert assistance 
in the planning of buildings and the laying out of station grounds. There is no limit 
to the form and variety of co-working once mutual confidence has been established. = 


Natives and Cooperation 


The rapidity with which Native consciousness is awakening in every part of 
Africa is an exceedingly interesting and significant fact. Reports everywhere agree 


98 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


that the Africans are increasingly wondering what of the morrow. The Great War 
made a tremendous impression on the Native mind, and nowhere in Africa as muchas in 
East Africa, where they saw and experienced the inconsistencies, the heroisms, the suf- 
ferings, the horrors and the tragedies of war. ‘There are also the influences of a much 
larger and more vigorous entrance of Kuropean aud Asiatic peoples into East Africa. 
Nor is the African blind to the competitions and strifes of these differentiated peoples. 
He knows that he sometimes profits by their antagonisms, but quite as often he is 
consciously or unconsciously used as the “ cat’s paw ” or pawn in the game. .The 
result of it all is an awakened mind, disturbed, or puzzled, or irritated, or aspiring 
for something new and something different. 

In Abyssinia and everywhere the people desire to know European languages 
and to establish contacts with European and American thought and achievement. 
Many are ready to believe any wild rumour of African redemption, whatever that 
may mean to them, through any agency. In its lowest terms it probably means the 
same as to the masses in any part of the world. It means plenty to eat, the minimum 
of toil, authority without responsibility, equality without attainment. There are, 
however, the thoughtful old people and the inquiring and thinking young people. ‘The 
Christian religion and mission schools have planted seeds which have taken root. 
There is a desire for more knowledge, more training, more participation in all about 
them. The socalled Ethiopian Movement in South Africa, the Rhodesias and 
Nyasaland probably represents an admixture of sense and nonsense, but it is none 
the less a movement of minds, opinions and feelings ; of suspicions, desires and hopes. 

Fortunately, there is a recognition of these Native movements and minds on the 
part of the Europeans and Asiatics. Sometimes the recognition takes the form of 
anxiety andantagonism. Sometimes there is wisdom enough to realize the importance 
of providing normal channels of self-expression for Native aspirations. The recog- 
nition of Native chiefs and tribal organizations is an effort in this direction. Various 
councils, such as the Lukiko of Uganda and the Native Bhunga of the Transkeian 
Territory, are better channels. Membership of Government Councils in West Coast 
colonies is a more advanced measure. Mission provision of Native officers for the 
Native Churches is more and more frequently being made. 

In many respects the most significant effort to recognize the Native mind and 
customs and feelings are the interracial organizations that have come into existence 
since the Great War. The first of these was the Commission on Interracial Coopera- 


tion in America. The following references from prominent American Negroes testify 
to the value of the Commission : 


These interracial conferences are rapidly educating the people to a fairer and more considerate 
manner of dealing with the humbler folk of all groups and races. The Commission is the best 
organization for the handling of human questions that has come to the American people since the 
days of slavery. 

We rejoice in the light of splendid changes. The Interracial Commission came in at a crucial 


moment ; hope had almost fled ; no other group or agency could have accomplished so much in so 
short a time, 


COOPERATION FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS 99 


President Coolidge’s comments on the American race problem have a bearing on 
race relations everywhere : 


Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution 
their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty 
to protect those rights. . . But it is well to recognize that these difficulties are to a large extent 
local problems which must be worked out by the mutual forbearance and human kindness of each 
community, Such a method gives much more promise of a real remedy than outside interference. 


The Native Welfare Association of Kenya Colony,formed by Archdeacon Owen and 
described at length in the Kenya chapter of this Report, has been stimulated by the 
American Commission. Archdeacon Owen’s letter of January, 1925, reflects the 
rapid progress of the movement: 


The Association’s activities are increasing apace and Government are taking a very sympathetic 
interest in us. We are to begin this year (1925) an experiment in Local District Councils which will 
allow Africans to assume a much greater responsibility than hitherto for their own local affairs. 
It is even proposed to let them tax themselves for local purposes, and to give them control of their 
local taxes under the advice and direction of the District Commissioner. This is a great step forward. 
We hope to see part of the local taxation devoted to education. Altogether things are looking up. 

. . Already there is a most noticeable development in real welfare directions. Our members 
are joining together to erect watermills at the Yala River and I have bought four hand-power miils in 
the last month. Also 1 am getting the first orders for plows. . . Our function for some time 
will be to remove misunderstandings and to promote racial goodwill and, when necessary, to press 
for adequate consideration of the interests of Africans, 


The success of the Joint Native Councils in South Africa is possibly the most 
substantial evidence of the present value and potentialities of local meetings and 
conferences for mutual exchange of feeling and ideas. The almost dramatic realiz- 
ation of interracial exchange is described by Dr. Loram in his Preface to a Report of 
a Conference of Bantu and Europeans held under the auspices of the Federal Council 
of Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa : 


It seems altogether fitting that this, the largest and most important unofficial Conference on 
Native Affairs ever held in South Africa, should have been called by the oldest, largest and most 
completely South African Church in the country. It seems to imply a recognition of the importance 
of the question by the Dutch-speaking as well as the English-speaking people of our country, the 
impossibility of a living Church holding aloof from the greatest of our problems, even though social, 
economic and even political issues are involved, an acceptance on the part of the Churches of their 
responsibilities for having helped to create the problem and their willingness to help in solving it, 
and the determination to regard this as a domestic matter to be settled in the long run by South 
Africa herself. 

Many Europeans and many more Natives must have been surprised to see forty Europeans— 
ministers, missionaries, professional and business men—sitting down in open round table conference 
with an equal number of Natives—ministers, chiefs, teachers, laborers and even socalled ‘‘ agi- 
tators ’’—and conducting a conference on a race question with rare skill, hard facts and the greatest 
good feeling. It seemed to me that I have never seen the old rule ‘‘ In dubiis liberias, in necessariis 
unitas, in omnibus caritas”’ more effectively carried out. There were many differences in details of 
policy and methods of attack, but there was a surprising agreement on general principles, while 
throughout there was a feeling of friendliness and trust and a willingness to see ihe point of view 
of the other side. It was a good omen for the future. 


100 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Indubiis libertas. It seems certain that uniformity in the details of the N ative policy and methods 
of administration is quite impossible. Not only have we individual and tribal differences among 
them, but they differ in methods of living, standards of education and in the political and adminis- 
trative treatment they have received from the European. Let us not then bemoan the fact that 
in the Cape the Native has the vote, while in other Provinces he has not, orthat the Zulu prefers 
tribal government to the ‘‘ council system” of the Transkei, or that some Natives are industrialists 
and professional men and women whereas others are farmers and servants. Tio attempt to put all 
Natives into the Reserves, or to make them all servants for the European, or to apply the same 
forms of government to all, or to have a uniform pass law, or in any way to make them all alike, 
would imperil their progress and our own. 

In necessariis unitas. In the fundamentals of Native policy and administration, however, there 
is needed a standard and united opinion. We shall in the long run be compelled to admit it, that 
* segregation ”’ is not a panacea for our racial ills, and that “* differential treatment ” is only possible 
-to a limited extent. We must accept the principle that the Native needs education for his sake and 
our own, though we may differ as to its form, We shall easily agree that he must pay for it, though 
we may differ as to the method or amount of the payment. We must make his taxation bear some 
relation to the benefit he receives from the State, though we may prefer a poll tax in the Transvaal 
and a hut tax in Natal. We can agree that the Native is entitled to justice, but whether he should 
be judged by European or Native law can be disputed. 

In omnibus caritas. Above all, we must see to it that in our attempts at a solution, our policy 
and administration are founded upon the teachings of Christianity, and this in spite of the oft- 
repeated statement that legislation and action on color questions cannot be ‘‘ squared’’ with the 
Sermon on the Mount. They must be so squared or else they will turn out to be no solutions at all. 
Both races need to exercise patience, understanding, a moderated expression of opinion and a willing- 
ness to discuss matters with the other side. Many are the ways of expressing this spirit of Christian 
charity, but a good beginning is to get together at a round table conference, to lay all the cards on 
the table, and to believe that the other side is just as honest and sincere as you are yourself, 

It is expected that this Report of the Conference of Bantu and Europeans will be used by the 
Student Christian Movement and other school and college groups, as well as by members of the 
general public. May one who has done much study of this subject remind others that the problem 
of race relationship calls for close study, deep thinking, long views, and that in the end the solution 
will be found to demand great sacrifices from both Black and White, but greater perhaps from the 
European than from the Native ? 


Sululely, Sy 


n 


A 


ny 


! 


M (2) 


“IqomeN ‘juourjredaq 


IOAA OTQGng (p) £ 1qorreN ‘A10}BLOGRT I 


‘ BIsapoyy Usay Nog ‘ofyopoly, ‘uorduey 


Ss 


» 


Bain ypNol 


ye 


jo uog 


* BISOPOUA, ULoY JNO ‘uor}eyg [R}UoUTTAOdXGT Gey oy} ye doays 


HYOLTIOIOV GNV AULSNGNI NI NOLLVOOGH L 


SV 730069 


oy} 78 


syuspnys 


> Aapueqsnyy peuruy (q) 
qsnyy yeunuy (7) 


<apue 


NUNNUYUAAOD 





PLATE XII 


WEST KENYA 22 
NANYUKE 36.497 
RUMUSUTE 6S — 


SOLO OS 9 


MERU 37 4? 


OT. gk tern ute % ~ 5 
We ese eh oe Wig Sa, Seats 





MEANS OF COMMUNICATION IN KENYA 
(a) On the Road near Fort Hall; (b) A Flying Bridge across the Athi River 
(c) A Reinforced Concrete Bridge, Ruiru; (d) Bridge in the Southern Masai Reserve 
(e) A Government Direction Post, 


weve 


PLATE XIII 





MISSIONARY COOPERATION IN MASS AND AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 


(a) Meeting of the Kavirondo Native Welfare Association, March 6, 1924; 
(b) Agricultural Show at Fort Hall, 


PLATE XIV 





TYPES OF NATIVES, KENYA 
(a) Masai: Raw and Trained ; (b) Wataita Women Carrying Bananas ; (c) Going Home in 
Kumasia Suk ; (d) A Kikuyu Young Man ; (e) A Christian Boy, Kikuyu. 


CHAPTER V 
KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 


HE education of the Native people of Kenya Colony became a subject of inter- 
national interest through the very notable pronouncement of the British 
Government in the White Paper of 1923 to the effect that 
There can be no room for doubt that it is the mission of Great Britain to work continuously 
for the training and education of the Africans towards a higher intellectual, moral and economic 
level than that which they had reached when the Crown assumed responsibility for the adminis- 
tration of this territory. At present special consideration is being given to economic development 
in the Native reserves and within limits imposed by the finances of the Colony all that is possible 
for the advancement and development of the Africans, both inside and outside the Native reserves, 


will be done. 


This very explicit statement of the educational mission of the British Government 
to the Natives of Kenya is a most significant application of the principle of trusteeship 
proclaimed in the same document : 


As in Uganda Protectorate, so in Kenya Colony, the principle of trusteeship for the Natives, 
no less than in the Mandated Territory of Tanganyika, is unassailable. 


Governmental and social custom throughout the world has too frequently inter- 
preted “ trusteeship ”’ as the right to control and to exploit rather than the duty to 
develop. The record of the British Government in this respect is the best in Africa. 
The Kenya proclamation is welcomed as the most definitely educational interpretation 
of governmental trusteeship in Africa ever made. In view of the well-known reputa- 
tion of Great Britain for the payment of debts and for the keeping of promises, this 
recognition of educational trusteeship is of very great significance, not only to Kenya 
but also to all British Colonies and indeed to all Africa. 

The unique element in Native development and education in Kenya is due to the 
presence of 10,000 Europeans and 36,000 Indians and Arabs, a much larger number 
than in any other tropical colony in Africa. The emphatic statement of the British 
Government on trusteeship and education is a direct result of the problems arising 
out of the conflict of interest of Europeans and Asiatics and the tendency to overlook 
the interests of 2,500,000 Natives. The education of the Africans to maintain their 
individuality and to cooperate successfully with the dominant Europeans and the 
enterprising Asiatics is obviously a difficult and yet a vital responsibility related 
inextricably to the welfare of the Colony. 

The presence of these comparatively large numbers of the representatives of older 
civilizations involves not only a responsibility but also a great opportunity. Africa 
and Africans need help from the other continents of the world. There has been 
extensive interchange between Europe, Asia and America to the great advantage of 
ali. Africa has likewise profited, but historically the proportion of exploitation and 
slavery has been all too large. The leadership of the British Government in Kenya 

101 E 


102 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


should make possible a cooperation of settlers, traders, missionaries and Natives 
that will place this Colony in the front rank in economic prosperity, in human welfare, 
and in the mutual helpfulness of all classes. The most essential condition of such 
cooperation is a wisely planned system of education—education of the Native to deal 
effectively with his environment, education of others to recognize the potentialities 
of the Natives. 

Hitherto, as in all Africa, missionaries have borne the main burden of Native 
education; With the help of the Government, several missionary societies are 
conducting relatively extensive educational activities. Government has been 
sympathetic and has given more help in Kenya Colony than in many colonies of Africa. 
Settlers representing some of the best British types are ready to cooperate. ‘The 
outlook for the future is full of hope. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Kenya Colony, known formerly as the British East Africa Protectorate, was 
transferred by the East Africa Company to the Imperial Government in 1893 and 
recognized as a Colony in 1920. What is now called the Protectorate is a narrow 
strip of land ten miles wide along the coast and leased from the Sultan of Zanzibar 
for an annual rent of £17,000. The Colony extends from Abyssinia, 4° north of the 
Equator, to Tanganyika, 4° south. The total area of the Colony and Protectorate, 
omitting the Jubaland Concession, is approximately 202,000 square miles or more 
than twice that of Great Britain. Its population is about 2,500,000, including 36,000 
Asiatics and 10,000 Europeans. The most significant geographical facts are as follows: 


(1) The unique elements of Kenya, distinguishing it from all other tropical colonies, are the High- 
lands of the South-western Section, which has a total area of about 60,000 square miles, and a 
population of about 2,200,000 Natives, 9,000 Europeans and 15,000 Asiatics. According to the 
census of 1921, this section contained 90 per cent. of the Europeans in the Colony and 40 per cent. 
of the Asiatics, It is estimated that the Native population is 80 per cent. ofthe total in the Colony. 

The Highlands, with an average altitude of 5,000 ft., have an area of about 35,000 square miles 
of which about 10,600 square miles are arable, Owing to the great height, the climate is in many 
respects like that of the temperate zone. Government officers report that about 12,000 square 
miles of the Highlands have been surveyed into farms and that 7,500 square miles have been 
alienated to 2,187 Europeans and 624 Asiatics. The latter own only 22 square miles.* It is also 
reported that about 45,000 square miles of the 60,000 in the South-western Section are reserved for 
Natives. It is stated that the Native reserves contain one-half of the 10,000 square miles of arable 
land and possibly two-thirds of the Highlands. 

(2) The Coast Province and Mombasa is next in importance to the South-western Section. 
Its population is estimated at 170,000 and its area at 25,000 square miles. According to the 
census of 1921 the total non-Native population was 18,765, of whom 726 were Europeans, 
8,629 were Indians, 756 Goans, 8,479 Arabs and 178 others. The Province is typically tropical 
in climate and vegetation. A number of small Native reserves are reported. 

(3) The Great North-east Section with an area of about 117,000 square miles and an estimated 
population of about 150,000 is said to be of very little agricultural value. The census of 1921 
reported a non-Native population of 1,700, of whom 65 were Europeans, 1,312 Arabs, 278 Indians, 
84 Goans and 12 others, 


* See footnote on p. 108. 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 108 


THE NATIVE As the Government has not taken any census of the Native people, 
PEOPLE it is impossible to give accurately their number and distribution. 
The published records are exceedingly scant as regards such an 
important subject as land tenure and manner of life. In view of thisitis only possible 
to present estimates and conjectures such as those already given of the total Native 
population and their distribution in the three geographical divisions of the Colony. 

From an educational point of view the nomadic tribes of the Northern Frontier 
District are of little significance for the near future. The country is under military 
rule and no provision is needed for Native reservations. The people of some of 
the tribes are reported to be tall and of fine physique. They possess large flocks and 
herds. The inhabitants of Jubaland, the extreme north-east section, are in part 
Somalis and Gallas. There are narrow strips of land on the Juba river of considerable 
fertility. | 

The Natives of the Coast Area are historically of considerable importance. In 
religion and habits many of them reflect the influence of the Arabs and other Asiatic 
peoples. In certain areas a number of them are Mohammedans. Swahili is the 
lingua franca. There are a number of small towns along the coast and nearby islands, 
some of which are of considerable size and of much interest. While Mombasa and 
Lamu are largely the product of European and Asiatic influence, the largest propor- 
tion of their population are Native Africans. There are 26,000 Natives in Mombasa 
alone. Even to this day evidence of the Arab slave raids may be seen in the presence 
of many old slaves still living at these commercial centers. The educational responsi- 
bility for these 170,000 people in the Coastal Area, reflecting the influence of Asia and 
Europe, is of considerable importance. 

The great and vigorous tribes of Kenya are in the highlands and plains of the 
South-western Section. The tribes include such well-known names as the Masai, 
the Kikuyu, and the Kavirondo. They represent a considerable variety in physique, 
customs, language and tribal organizations. The principal Native areas of the South- 
western Section are reported by the Government as follows : 


Province, Population. Area in 
square miles, 

INVANZA Seep eee wary a ge Pees. 4. 808,000 15,000 

KURMV eee) es, oe ee et? 788000 13,000 

UKAMDA Wag) ie ae es Fae.) § 886,000 30,000 

Masai Feserveresvsui.l saben aes Lee 50,000 14,600 

Koumasia-=Suky wines ome eis VS A 99,000 10,000 


The first consideration in the well-being of these Native people is their tenure of 
the land. In competition with the vigorous European settlers, the Native people 
can hardly be expected to succeed. Their methods of cultivation require frequent 
changes of the areas used as fields and gardens. Only thus can they avoid plant and 
animal diseases and maintain fertility enough for successful cultivation. The 
Natives of the Kenya Highlands have been in constant fear that their lands would 
be taken from them. In this respect they have the same experience as Natives in 


104 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 





wif t 
Mes 


4 


NV 


fo 


4 Formerly 
part of, =) ° 


JUBALAND! 


‘7a late RIAD Os 


se 


LO-/TALIAN BOUNDARY 


SNS v a 
rT “ge . - = = 
MT Kilimaryaro Fx = 


~ 
Ne 
- 


TER RITOR Y. \ 


“ 


. 


S. momBASAy. 
Ne 2 


Enetusy Mites 
50 ico 150 


36 A.E.HUITT 





KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 105 


every part of the world when settlers from more advanced people enter their country. 
The American Indians and the South African Natives are striking illustrations of 
injustices that may be consciously or unconsciously perpetrated on the original 
inhabitants. The law of “ might makes right’ has usually applied. The Natives 
of the Highlands of Kenya are increasingly eager that their lands shall be definitely 
assigned to them. The lessons of history, as well as the demand of sound economics 
and simple justice, all point to the need for an early and just decision of this question. 
The Land Tenure Commission Report of Kenya in March of 1922 stated the principles 
to govern the delimitation of Native reserves as follows : 

The delimitation of Native reserves should be based on beneficial occupation and the needs 
of each tribe as they at present exist, together with a sufficiency for the estimated increase in the 
next generation. 

In view of the fact that the reserves are limited, we consider that Government is committed 
to a policy of ensuring a better use of the land within the boundaries ; and this policy we think 
should take the form of educating the Natives to improved methods of intensive cultivation. 'To 
consider the more effective use of land, to improve the capabilities of land by providing or increasing 
« water supply, and to define the present needs of the Natives, would probably be functions of 

2 Native Trust. 


It now remains for the Colonial Office and the local Government to work out a 
method of making these principles effective. Past experience all over the world 
indicates the vital importance, first, of impartiality in the delimitation of the reserves; 
and, second, of adequate guarantees that the decision will be permanent. Reports 
indicate that Native reservations amounting to about 45,000 square miles have been 
made in the South-western Section of the Colony and that these reservations contain 
about one-half of the 10,000 square miles of arable land in the Highlands. If all that 
is said of the character of this land is true, it would seem that these reservations are 
adequate in quality and in quantity, and that now the important consideration is a 
guarantee that the Natives may retain these areas and receive such educational and 
other assistance as is necessary to make effective use of the lands assigned to them. 

Next to land tenure, the important element in the welfare of the Natives is their 
health. The principal Medical Officer states that 


The Native mode of living is highly insanitary. Native huts are infested with rats and vermin. 
The leather garments generally worn are never washed. Certain tribal customs of apparently 
recent date gravely affect the health of girls and women, and these, together with faulty feeding, 
result in an appalling infant mortality. The most prevalent maladies are yaws, venereal diseases, 
plague and dysentery. 


The Medical Officer further maintains that proper feeding is unknown. 


Nearly every year, for some weeks before the harvest, a large proportion of the population is 
more or less underfed, The ordinary grass-roofed wattle and daub Native hut is perhaps the most 
insanitary dwelling that can be constructed. It is small, largely without ventilation and light, and 
it cannot be kept clean. Only a very small proportion of the population live sufficiently near to 
lake or river to obtain an adequate supply of water. For many of the people the sole water supply 
consists of small water holes dug in a rapidly drying swamp or a small collection of water preserved 
by damming a rivulet during the rains. 


106 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


This depressing report is lightened by the achievements of the Medical Depart- 
ment and the influence of the educational activities maintained by missions with 
the help of the Government. In the paragraphs on European influences, the activities 
for the improvement of the health of the Native people are recounted. Despite 
the ravages of disease and the insanitary conditions, it is believed that the Native 
people are now increasing in number, but there is a woeful lack of vital statistics 
or indeed of any satisfactory figures dealing with the Native population. The elimina- 
tion of tribal warfare is one of the contributing causes. The death rate of infants 
and of adults is still exceedingly high. Even from the point of view of the labor 
needs of the Colony the loss of human life is most wasteful. The great potentialities of 
Kenya Colony will never be realized until the health of the Native people is sufficient 
to guarantee the normal increase of the population. 

The principal occupation of the Natives is agriculture and cattle raising. Of the 
forty or more tribes about 23 are agricultural, 12 are pastoral, 6 of the small tribes 
are said to live mainly by hunting and one tribe in the Coast Province is composed 
of sea-faring people. The Kikuyu and the Akamba are widely known for their skill 
in farming. Certain castes in a number of the tribes are able to smelt iron and to 
manufacture iron implements. 

An increasing number of the Native people are being employed by Europeans on 
their farms and in industrial and commercial operations of both Government and 
private concerns. The extension of European farm areas and the multiplication of 
industrial and commercial activities are demanding more and more labor from the 
Native tribes. At times this demand has been quite acute and there was danger 
that some form of compulsion would be used to increase the supply of labor. To 
eliminate this danger, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1921, issued a despatch 
to the officers administering the Government of Kenya Colony and Protectorate 
relating to Native labor. The following quotations indicate the main features of 
this important despatch : 


Traditional unpaid labour by Natives in a Reserve for the benefit of the Reserve. 


: any Headman may from time to time issue orders to be obeyed by Natives residing 
within the local limits of his jurisdiction in the making or maintaining of any watercourse or 
other work constructed or to be constructed or maintained for the benefit of the community to 
which such able-bodied men belong, provided that no person shall be ordered or required to work 
in this way for more than six days in any quarter. 

This form of labour, which is traditional among Natives in East Africa, is not, in my opinion, 
open to criticism, provided that such labour is confined to males and that the other limitations 
imposed by the Ordinance are strictly observed. 


Voluntary labour for private employers. 


The principle that Administrative Officers and Native Chiefs should take every opportunity 
of inculcating among the Natives habits of industry either inside or outside the Reserves is obviously 
right, and not open to criticism. But beyond taking steps to place at the disposal of Natives any 
information which they may possess as to where labour is required, and at the disposal of employers 
information as to sources of labour available for voluntary recruitment, the government officials 
will in future take no part in recruiting labour for private employment. 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 107 


Compulsory paid labour for Government, 


I wish it to be placed on public record that it is the declared policy of the government of Kenya 
to avoid recourse to compulsory labour for Government purposes, except when this is absolutely 
necessary for essential services ; I have decided that the legislation which empowers the government 
to obtain compulsory labour shall remain on the statute book, but with the following amendment : 
It should be provided that, except in regard to the provision of paid porters for government servants 
on tour or for the transport of urgent government stores, the government must refer to the 
Secretary of State for prior authority to utilize the powers of compulsion conferred by the Ordinance 
and that such authority will only be given for specified works for a specified period. Further, the 
works of a public nature for which compulsory labour is now permissible and for which in special 
cases the Secretary of State may in future authorize compulsory labour should be defined in the 
amending Ordinance, 


With such clearly defined limitation of methods for obtaining labor, it would 
seem that the danger of any use of force should be practically eliminated. There 
will still be need for care to secure the adequate observance of these regulations 
inasmuch as their application lies in the hands not only of the European officials, 
but of the paid Chiefs and Native headmen. The settlers are naturally eager for 
adequate labor to handle their large agricultural operations and the general develop- 
ment of the Colony will continue to make demands. The agricultural census for 1923 
shows that the average number of units of labor employed monthly was 71,000, of 
whom 54,400 were men, 6,600 were women and 10,000 were children. This represents 
an increase of almost 10,000 over the preceding year. The Native Registration 
Department of the Government shows that a large proportion of the Native people 
are registered for work. It seems evident that competition for Native labor will 
continue. Even as far back as 1919 pamphlets given to intending settlers warned 
them “‘ that the scarcity of labor is one of the greatest difficulties with which they 
have to contend.” 

News items from a Nairobi Correspondent in November, 1924, refer to the 
anxiety of the settlers lest cotton production by the Natives should decrease their 
labor supply. It seems clear that serious consideration should be given to the 
demands of existing agricultural and industrial organizations. This should, of 
course, apply equally to the activities of both Europeans and Natives. As a per- 
manent policy the discouragement of Native production cannot be defended by 
sound economics. On along view the real solution of any adequate labor supply 
is in the normal increase of population and the effective use of labor. 

The tribal and family organization has been greatly weakened by the advent 
of European influence. The Government is making considerable endeavor to 
make the tribe a basis for administration. Among some of the tribes, as for 
example the Masai, the Native organizations are quite strong. In order that iron 
workers may be protected from extinction they cannot become warriors. In religion 
the Natives are mostly pagans, with the exception of some of the Coast tribes who 
are Mohammedan. In some of the tribes the chief Medicine Man is also the head 
of the tribe. Christianity is making rapid progress especially among the Kavirondo 
and the Kikuyu. 


108 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


THE The three highly differentiated geographical divisions of Kenya 
COUNTRY Colony have been mentioned, and the density of their population 

indicated. It is clear that the extensive North-east Section, con- 
taining about 117,000 square miles, almost three-fifths of the land in the Colony, is of 
no value for crop production. Technically it is described as “ grazing land of 
very low carrying capacity and suitable only for nomadic pastoral tribes.” 

The land and climate of the Coast Province are tropical as regards crop pro- 
duction. The area, including the Tana River District, is estimated to be about 
25,000 square miles. A considerable portion of the land is fertile and capable of 
producing sisal, rice, sugar and other crops. Numerous coconut plantations are 
reported. Mombasa, a city of 30,000 people, which is, however, under separate 
administration, and numerous smaller towns along the coast, indicate the commercial 
importance of the Coast Province. Were it not for the great developments and 
potentialities of the Highlands of Kenya, famous for their temperate climate and 
fertile lands, the Coast Province would command much more attention, its resources 
would be better developed and its people would share more largely than they do in the 
sanitary and educational activities of civilization. 

The real Kenya is, of course, in the South-western Section, with an area of about 
95,000 square miles, equalling that of Uganda without its great lakes. Here the 
great Rift Valley, extending from the Jordan Valley to South Africa, passes through 
the Colony, with plateaux 8,000 feet above sea-level on both sides. The highland 
areas are estimated to be about 35,000 square miles, with an average height of 5,000 
feet. The extinct volcano Mt. Elgon’is over 14,000 feet high and the snow-clad 
peaks of Mt. Kenya tower over all at a height of 17,000 feet. Even though the 
Equator passes through this region, the climate is that of the temperate zone except 
for the heavy seasonal rains and the rather extreme variations between night and 
day. The arable land is estimated at 10,000 square miles. There is also good grazing 
land. Much of the country is, however, lacking in an adequate water supply. Records 
of the mean average rainfall for 1922 show that the amount was less than the average 
at 50 per cent. of the stations. The records for 1928 are much more favorable. 

= The available indications of agricultural possibilities are differentiated to show 
cultivation by Europeans and that by Natives. The following facts have been 
obtained from official reports relating to European Jand holdings : 

1. Land surveyed into farms, about 7,500,000 acres. 

2. Land in possession of Europeans in 1923, 4,000,000 acres.* This represents an increase of 26 per 
cent. over 1920. 

3. Land cultivated by Europeans in 1924, 347,000 acres. This is about 7:8 per cent. of the land 
occupied, of which much is grazing land and not cultivable. 


4. The percentage of areas under principal crops in relation to total areas under cultivation are : 
Maize, 36-4 in 1923, 18-2 in 1920; Coffee, 19-0 in 1923, 15-8 in 1920; Sisal, 14-2 in 1923, 17-4 


* In answer to a question in the Legislative Council at Nairobi on Oct. 28, 1922, the 
Commissioner of Lands stated that the total area of agricultural holdings in the possession of 
Europeans was 7,280,000 acres (approximately 11,375 square miles), and in the possession of 
Indians 14,128 acres (22 square miles). 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 109 


in 1920; Wheat, 5-6 in 1923, 2-6 in 1920; Coconuts, 3-2 in 1923, 5-3 in 1920; Flax, 2-2 in 1923, 
13-7 in 1920, 

5. The number of occupiers increased from 1,183 in 1920 to 1,466 in 1923; and the acreage 
per occupier cultivated or in use for grazing increased from 1,110 acres in 1920 to 1,278 in 1923. 
By June 1924 the number of occupiers had grown to 1,715, and the acres under actual cultivation 
were 203 per occupier as distinguished from 149 acres in 1920. 

6. The total head of catile owned by Europeans in 1923 was 190,000, an increase of 10 per 
cent, over previous returns ; sheep owned in 1923 were 147,000, an increase of 10 per cent. ; goats, 
6,358, an increase of 24 per cent.; poultry, 38,700, an increase of more than 50 percent. The number 
of pigs decreased, owing to the radical decrease in the export price of pork, but sufficient supply was 
raised for local consumption. The animal products sold in 1923 included 350,000 gallons of milk ; 
43,000 gallons of cream ; 247,000 Ibs. butter ; 97,000 Ibs. ghee ; 155,000 Ibs. cheese and 445,000 Ibs. 
wool, 

These facts show both the varied possibilities of the Highlands of Kenya and the 
steady progress of Kuropean farm operations. 

It is obviously impossible to obtain an accurate statement for the agricultural 
production of 2,000,000 Native people, whose chief concern is the cultivation of 
gardens for their food supply and the securing of grazing for their goats. With the 
extension of agricultural education and the increase of Native production for export, 
the Colony will doubtless be able to effect a very large increase inits general production. 
The standards of both soil cultivation and live stock breeding introduced by European 
farmers, together with the wide extension of roads and railways for transportation, 
are bound to have tremendous influence on Native production in the near future. 
The improvement of health conditions will, within a few years, result in the increase 
of the Native population, so that both European and Native agricultural productions 
will contribute to the wealth of the Colony and to the prosperity of all the people. 
The estimated live stock of the Natives in 1923 is as follows: Cattle, 3,000,000 ; 
sheep, 2,400,000; goats, 3,400,000; horses, 200; mules, 300; donkeys, 35,000 ; 
camels, 150,000. 

The forest products and mineral resources of the Colony and Protectorate are 
described as follows in the British List for 1924: 

The forest products of the coast are mangrove poles and bark, timber and gum-copal. The scrub 
forests further inland contain ebony and scrub mahogany. The highland forests contain croton, 
pencil cedar in large quantities and several good timbers, Several large areas of fibre-bearing land 
have been leased near Voi and Kibwezi for the purpose of developing the Sanseviera fibre, which is 
indigenous, Sisal and rubber are being extensively planted. 

The mineral resources of the Protectorate are not yet well ascertained, but iron is known to occur 
abundantly in most districts ; mica diatomite and graphite are found in Ukamba; limestone is 
worked near Kitui, Makindu and Lake Victoria ; opals are common in the Rift Valley ; a large 
deposit of carbonate of soda has been found in the south part of Ukamba ; gold mining began, but 
was discontinued. Recent concessions include prospecting rights and grants of agricultural and 
grazing land. 


EUROPEAN European influence in East Africa begins with the conquest of the 
INFLUENCES Coast towns by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Vasco 

da Gama, at the close of the fifteenth century, found Arab settlements 
along the coast and negotiated with them. The settlements had evidently been in 


E2 


110 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


existence for centuries. At a later date the Portuguese were overcome by other 
European nations, as well as by Africans and Indians. Still later, the Muscat Arabs 
established control in Zanzibar and took possession of Mombasa. The following 
quotation, prepared by an officer of the Colonial Office, describes the situation when 
British influence began to penetrate the country : 


When the Imperial British East Africa Company established its control over the country 
the migrations from the North had long ago ceased. The Muscat Arabs had driven the Portuguese 
from Mombasa and established themselves as Sultans of Zanzibar and lords of the East African 
Coast. Their dhows carried the sea trade in the Indian Ocean and the Zanzibar merchants went far 
into the interior to find slaves andivory. The weaker and more peaceful Native tribes had been 
driven from the open plains into inaccessible forests and to the remote parts of the high plateaux by 
a number of independent peoples highly organized and well trained for fighting. Ofthese, the Nilotic 
Masai were the most feared; their raiding parties were the terror of the land. Throughout the 
country, Natives could be divided into two classes, the raiders and the raided. 

British influence came gradually with the extension of the East Africa Company’s activity. In 
the early days, the Company sent missionaries from Scotland to the Wakamba in the central part of 
Kenya. When the Uganda Railway was built, the open tracts of country through which it passed 
were uninhabited and the Natives either hid in their refuges or attacked the Europeans, the Swahili 
laborers and the Indian foremen and engineers. 


The British East Africa Protectorate was proclaimed in 1890. The Imperial 
East Africa Company undertook administration in 1891, but transferred its responsi- 
bilities to the Imperial Governmentin 1898. Kenya Protectorate, consisting of the 
majnland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, a strip of land extending ten miles 
inland, along the coast from Tanganyika to Lamu, was leased to Great Britain 
for an annual rent of £17,000. This strip was originally held by the Imperial East 
Africa Company, but transferred to the British Government in 1895. The territory 
outside the Sultan’s dominions was recognized as a Colony in 1920. A Governor 
and Commander.in-Chief was placed over the Colony and Protectorate in 1906. 

The constitution of the Colony and Protectorate is described in the Colonial 
Office List for 1924 as follows : 


The Executive Council of the Colony consists of the Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, 
Treasurer, Chief Native Commissioner, and Principal Medical Officer (ex officio members), 
such other persons holding office in the public service of the Colony as the Governor may appoint 
(official members), and such persons (if any) not holding such office as the Governor may appoint 
(unofficial members), with the Governor as President... . The Legislative Council of the Colony shall 
consist of the Governor as President, ten ea officio members, not more than seven nominated official 
members, eleven European elected members, and four Indian elected members ; the ea officio mem- 
bers to be the ew officio members of the Executive Council, with the General Manager of the Uganda 
Railway, Land Officer, Director of Agriculture, Director of Public Works, and Chief of Customs ; 
the nominated official members to be such persons holding office in the Colony or Protectorate 
of Kenya as the Governor may appoint ; the European elected members to be such fit persons as may 
be elected under the Electoral Ordinance of 1919 or any subsequent law ; the Indian elected members 
to be such fit persons as may be elected under any law enacted for that purpose. . . . The 
constitution was further revised in 1928 by the increase of the nominated official members to a 
maximum of ten, the substitution of five Indian elected members for the four Indian nominated 
members, and the addition of one Arab elected member and a nominated unofficial member (chosen 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 111 


from among the Christian Missionaries in Kenya) to represent the interests of the African com- 
munity. 

The Colony is divided for administrative purposes into eight Native provinces 
and reserves and several non-Native units, including settled districts and municipal 
areas. 


Native Provinces and Reserves 


The large and populous provinces of Kikuyu and Nyanza are in the South-western 
Highland Section, Nearly proximate to the Kikuyu Reserve, and east of it, is the 
Ukamba Province, the eastern portion of which is almost uninhabited. The western 
portion has a large Native population. These three provinces contain almost 2,000,000 
of the Native people in Kenya. The Masai Reserve is also in the South-western 
Section between the Highlands and Tanganyika. Suk-Kamasia is north-west of 
the Highlands. Not much seems to be known about its present condition or poten- 
tialities. The Coastal and Jubaland Provinces are also Native Provinces. The 
Coastal, with its maritime towns, is important. The Northern Frontier, including 
Turkana, with sparse and nomadic population is under military rule. 


Non-Native Administration 


The non-Native areas include the European settlements and the town units. 
With the exception of Mombasa, they are located in the Highlands. Nairobi, the 
capital of the Colony, has a population of about 3,000 Europeans, 10,000 Asiatics, 
and 16,000 Natives. It is located 327 miles from the coast at an altitude of 
5,600 feet, and has the general features of a European city. Kisumu, the principal 
port on Lake Victoria, and Nakuru, one of the highest points on the Uganda Railway, 
are important centers of European activity. Nevertheless, each has a Native popula- 
tion of about 20,000. The larger settled areas are Naivasha, with 17,000 Natives, 
Trans-Nzoia, Laikipia, Uasin Gishu, all located in high and healthful regions with 
many passably good roads. 

In the typically tropical colonies, with practically no European or Asiatic settlers, 
the governmental expenditures are significant indications of the activities on behalf 
of the Natives. The expenditures in Kenya, with its comparatively large and impor- 
tant European and Asiatic populations, do not have the same significance as a measure 
of work on behalf of Natives. They do, however, reflect a general development of the 
Colony which is bound to have an indirect influence on the Native people. The 
following figures must be interpreted with due allowance for the large expenditures 
directly related to European settlements. They are supplemented, as far as possible, 
by figures that are directly concerned with Native affairs. 

Total revised Governmental Expenditure estimated for 1924—£1,919,000. 

I.. Education, agriculture and health. . . . . £316,430 
Education, £75,000 ; agriculture, £87,659 ; 
forestry, £26,828 ; medical, £126,943, 
(Education includes £37,000 for Natives.) 


112 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Il. Territorial administration Xn MEER £288,591 
Governor, £12,106; legal dept., 234,109 ; 
administration, £242,576. 

Ill. Military, police and prisons 329,584 


Military, £170,351 ; police, £114,408 ; 
prisons, £44,825. 

IV. Public works, highways, posts and telegraphs 323,467 
Public works, £185,088 ; P.O. and telegraphs, 
£138,379. 


The expenditures more directly concerned with Native development are given 
pelow. It has not been possible to include the overhead charges. With the excep- 
tion of the figures for administration and, to some extent, the Medical Department, 
these figures show what has been actually set aside for improving Native conditions : 


Education, £37,000; Medical, £54,444 ; Agriculture, £10,320 ; 
Veterinary, £10,154; Forestry, £320 ; Administration, £177,497. 


Group I, including expenditures for health and agriculture, amounts to approxi- 
mately £316,000, or 16 per cent. of the total. This percentage approximates to that 
for most of the Colonies. The educational expenditure, amounting to £75,000, 
is alittle over 3°7 per cent. of the total, and includes £37,000 for Native education, 
£24,000 for Europeans and £11,675 for Indians. In relation to the number of Natives, 
the £37,000, though obviously inadequate for a population of 2,500,000 people, com- 
pares favorably with similar expenditures elsewhere. In proportion to the total expen- 
diture in Group I, the percentage of 1-9 is rather low. The Medical Department is 
one of the most active and efficient in work for Native welfare. The medical report 
for 1923 shows 23 Native hospitals, with 1,086 beds. There are also settlements for 
lepers at Lamu and Malindi, 384 places for the treatment of yaws patients, and 48 
dispensaries. The medical staff included 18 European officers, 5 European nursing 
sisters, one nursing orderly, 1 dispenser, 1 assistant surgeon, 18 sub-assistant surgeons, 
7 compounders, 232 dressers and other minor helpers. The Department is fully 
conscious of the appalling infant mortality and is directing its activities both towards 
the curing and the prevention of disease. 

The Agricultural Department has a director and 33 officials, 3 laboratories for 
scientific research, experimental farms, and several forest nurseries. The veterinary 
division has a staff of 65 officials. The activities of these departments are all directly 
or indirectly related to welfare of the Natives. 

Group II comprises the salaries and expenses of the administrative officers. The 
£288,000 for this purpose, about 15 per cent. of the total, represents the average 
for the British Colonies in Africa. The activities of these officers on behalf of Native 
people are in some respects the most essential of all to their well-being. 

Group III. The expenditures for the military, prisons and police are 17 per 
cent. of the total and rather higher than in other Colonies. This is partly explained 
by the military administration of the large Frontier Territory. While these Depart- 
ments, with their Native soldiers and Native police, exert much helpful influence, 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 1138 


it is to be hoped that the appropriation may be at least relatively diminished in favor 
of an increased appropriation for an education that makes for good behavior. 

Group IV estimates are for public works, including roads, telegraphs, public 
buildings. The £323,000, or 16 per cent. of the total, is rather below the average. 
The extension of the means of communication in the Highland Section of Kenya 
has proceeded with great rapidity. The Uganda Railway extends from the Indian 
Ocean to Lake Victoria, a distance of 584 miles. Withits extensions and the steamer 
connections to many points on the lake, this railway system is a vital factor to a 
very large population in Central Africa. The extent of roadways is almost amazing 
in comparison with other colonies in tropical Africa. At the end of 1922 there were 
3,000 miles of roads suited in dry weather for use by motors. Kikuyu Province is 
reported to have over 600 miles of good road ; Nyanza Province is said to have 1,000 
miles for wheel transport. Other sections of the Highlands are equally well supplied 
with roads. The telegraph system, with 3,789 miles of wire, connects all the impor- 
tant districts of the Colony. The civilizing value of this unusual development of 
transportation and communication is exceedingly great. 

The analysis of the European population, according to the census of 1921, is a 
Significant indication of their type as well as of their activities and influence in Kenya. 
The 9,651 Europeans, representing an increase of 204 per cent. since 1911, are almost 
all British. Of these, 1,140 were born in Kenya and 896 are South African Dutch. 
As to church affiliations, they are 60 per cent. Church of England; 11 per cent. 
Dutch Reformed ; 10 per cent. Presbyterians ; 9 per cent. Roman Catholics; and 
10 per cent. others. 

The occupational division is both interesting and significant. The economic 
group, numbering 3,709, is the largest. This group includes 1,893 settlers, 987 
commercial, 559 industrial, 138 professional, 182 in various forms of personal service. 
Government service, with 1,117 persons, is the second in number. This includes 789 
Civil Servants, 167 railway employees, 112 military and 49 municipal servants. The 
missionaries are about 300in number. These three occupational groups are dominant 
in all the affairs of the Colony. They represent the morals and the morale of British 
society. The effective work of the Government has already been outlined. The 
great services of the missionaries will be described in the second section of this chapter. 
Some indication of the important work of the settlers and farmers has been given 
in the paragraphs relating to the country and the Native people. They are concerned 
with the development of the soil, the greatest asset not only of the Colony, but of 
Africa, and they are approaching this vital service with the aid of an education which 
prepares them to attack new problems with intelligence. Many of them represent the 
cultured classes of Great Britain. A number of them are ex-Service men. Their 
mistakes are those of settlers pioneering in any country, often without previous 
experience in farming. With the encouragement and direction of sound British 
opinion, both in the Colony and in Great Britain, they are making and are destined to 
make a most vital contribution to the development of Kenya and possibly of East 
Africa. In this important service, settlers and farmers, together with those in com- 


114 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


mercial, industrial and professional groups, are called to cooperate with Government 
and missionaries in that spirit of noblesse oblige which is characteristic of the best 
British tradition in colonial trusteeship. 

The occupational analysis of the Asiatics is also interesting and shows the extensive 
help which they have rendered in the development of the Colony. The total number 
in various occupations for 1921 was 17,879. Government employees, numbering 
3,355, included 2,024 on the railroad, 1,801 government servants and 30 military. 
Those in economic occupations, numbering 14,524, included 5,733 in commerce and 
trading, 3,679 in industrial pursuits, 2,513 in personal services and 49 in professional 
service. Before the Uganda railway was built, commerce between Natives and the 
outside world was all in the hands of Coast Arabs, who sent their employees into the 
interior to exchange Indian and European goods for Native products. The small 
shops distributed over the Colony are now largely conducted by Indians. The 3,679 
Asiatics in industrial pursuits indicate how large a contribution they have been making 
to the mechanical needs of the Colony. It is evident that the cooperation of 
Europeans and Asiatics has been essential to the development of the Colony and the 
2,500,000 Native people. 


Il. EDUCATION 


Kenya is responsible for the education of approximately 500,000 Native children. 
The overwhelming majority of these children, amounting to 400,000, are in the South- 
western Section. The Coastal Province, with only 40,000 children, is comparatively 
unimportant. The North-eastern area, with 30,000 children, can hardly be con- 
sidered educationally at the present time owing to the nomadic life of the Native 
people, except those in the coastal areas of Jubaland, among whom there are Roman 
Catholic and Swedish Lutheran missionaries. The educational areas in the order of 
their importance are as follows : 


1. Kikuyu Area and Reserves, with 146,600 children of school age, occupies the center of the 
famous Highland Section with the city of Nairobi as headquarters. Native schools are maintained in 
this region by the Church Missionary Society, the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Fathers, 
the Gospel Mission and the Africa Inland Mission. The quality of the work done compares favorably 
with that in other parts of Africa. Large financial resources would place the work of these missions 
among the best in Africa. The most influential of the missions are the Church of Scotland and the 
Church Missionary Society. 

2. Nyanza and Kavirondo Areas, with 179,600 Native children, include the highlands and lowlands 
bordering on Lake Victoria, with headquarters at Kisumu. In addition, in Kumasia-Suk there is 
reported to be a school population of almost 20,000, for whom there seems to be no educational 
provision. The principal missionary organizations in the area are the Church Missionary Society 
and the Friends’ American Mission. The Seventh Day Adventists have within the last few years 
organized an important work near the Tanganyika border. Four other American Missions, each 
with one central station and out-schools, are the African Institute of the Church of God, the Lumbwa 
Friends’ Industrial, the Independent Nilotic and the Africa Inland Mission. The Mill Hill Fathers, 
with headquarters in Uganda, maintain large mission stations in this area, but their educational 
work, hitherto largely catechetical, is in process of reorganization according to the well-known 
standards of the Society. The educational ideals and methods of the C.M.S. and the Friends’ 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 115 


Mission are the main basis of hope for the future of education in this populous district. While the 
smaller missions are rendering a valuable service in their respective districts, there is a real need 
for the correlation of their work with other missions, especially with the larger missions and with 
government standards of Native education. The Mill Hill Fathers are capable of rendering a large 
service. 

3. Ukamba Province, with a school population of 67,200, adjoins Nairobi and extends towards 
the lowlands of the Coastal Province. The Africa Inland Mission has sole responsibility for edu- 
cation in the extensive areas next to the Kikuyu Province. The Church Missionary Society has 
an interesting but small work in the very important though not very populous region adjoining 
the Kilimanjaro district of North-eastern Tanganyika. The Fathers of the Holy Ghost also have 
stations in this Province. Recently Government has organized an effective industrial school at 
Machakos, a district next to Nairobi. 

4. The Coastal Area, with 40,000 Native children in the coastal towns and scattered widely over 
the unhealthy coastal regions, is historically important. The Church Missionary Society has the 
effective Buxton High School in Mombasa and an interesting but small school for training African 
clergy at Frere Town, near by. The Fathers of the Holy Ghost also maintain a work in Mombasa. 
The scattered populations of the interior plains have only the schools supplied by the Church 
Missionary Society, the United Methodists, and the Fathers of the Holy Ghost. The government 
technical school, not far from Mombasa, provides valuable industrial training. 

5. The Masai Reserve, with 10,000 Native children, extends along the Tanganyika border. The 
very limited but effective educational work for the Masai tribe is carried on by Government 
and the Africa Inland Mission at Narok. 

6. Jubaland Province, with Natives grouped at coastal centers, and the Northern Province, with 
its nomadic people, having a joint population of 150,000 people, require the consideration of Govern- 
ment. At the present time educational work is carried on in Jubaland by three stations of the 
Swedish Lutheran Mission and by the Missions of the Order of the Holy Ghost. 

7. The non-Native Areas, which have been already referred to, have a total resident population 
of over 113,000 Natives. Many of these live under conditions which have broken up family life. 
The school population is therefore probably less in proportion than in the Native areas, but 
amounts to a number far too great to be treated as negligible. 


Comparison of the educational facilities in these six areas with the number of 
children of school age gives some measure of the extent to which the education is 
available for the Native population. Further information on the quality and quan- 
tity of schools is presented in succeeding paragraphs describing the schools of each 
mission organization. It has been observed that the Kikuyu and Kavirondo districts 
with their great Native populations are fortunate in the number of strong mission 
societies maintaining Native schools. These societies are, however, seriously ham- 
pered by a lack of staff and funds, and some of them are handicapped by ineffective 
educational methods. The remaining districts are less fortunate in number of 
schools or in the type of organization. 

The efforts of Kenya Colony to deal with the problems of Native education, and 
some considered opinions on the subject, are indicated in the Report of the Kduca- 
tional Commission of the East Africa Protectorate appointed by Government in 
1919. This Commission represented Government, missions and settlers, as well 
as the European women of the Colony. The following quotations reflect the 
thoroughgoing consideration given to the subject as well as the genuine interest 
taken in the Native people ; 


116 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


A mass of evidence has been taken from missionaries and others on the question of Native educa- 
tion, and the conclusion arrived at by the Commission is that the best method of furthering education 
among the Native population, apart from the Coast Mohammedan Native, is by means of the organi- 
zation which already exists among the various missionary bodies. 

If the education of Natives is left, as the Commission suggest, to the various religious bodies at 
work in the mission field, it is obvious that Government must assist in providing the necessary funds, 
and having done that it must take steps by inspection and advice to see that the money is properly 
applied or rather that it is getting good value for it, and, more important still, that the education is 
sound and on right lines. For education to be sound it will be necessary to train teachers. This 
work is now being done by missionary societies, and should be so developed that instead of being 
taught to read and write by the most primitive methods the Native should be educated, in the 
correct sense of the term, whether it be in a secondary school or in a village school. The Commis- 
sioners lay the greatest stress on the creation of efficient normal schools. ‘ 

The Commission is entirely opposed to any system of payment by results, which it recommends 
should be abolished in the case of the grants now made to technical schools. A grant should depend 
on the general state of efficiency of the school. That can be ascertained by frequent inspection. 
Normal schools should be subsidized on the same lines as other schools. 

The Commission suggest that a great deal of good could be done if district officers generally were 
to show sympathetic interest in the cause of Native education by occasionally visiting schools and 
telling chiefs and others the value of education. 

One of the principal means whereby the knowledge of reading and writing is spread is through 
the village or out-school, as it is called. These schools are usually in the control of a Native mission 
teacher and are visited from time to time by European members of the mission. It is in the opinion 
of the Commission very necessary that these schools should be under trained teachers, who should 
in turn be under the close control of the mission authorities ; otherwise the effort has wasteful, if not 
dangerous, results. Itis, of course, not at present possible to give technical education in these schools 
other than perhaps more instruction in agriculture. 

Technical education should not be confined to boys, but should be given to girls both Native and 
ofotherraces. The chemistry of cooking orthe art of needlework a {ford efficient media for education. 

With regard to the language in which education is given to Natives the Commission is of opinion 
that the initial stages must be in the vernacular. The Commission is strongly of opinion that after 
the necessary preliminary instruction in the vernacular English should be taught in all Native 
schools both on patriotic and practical grounds. At present orders are given to the majority of 
Natives engaged in labor in Swahili, alanguage which is foreign both to the employer and to the em- 
ployee; as a rule it is equally badly spoken by both, with the result that misunderstandings are 
frequent and the relations between employer and employee become strained. Swahili is rarely 
spoken accurately by up-country tribes, some of which are not even Bantu, and the Commission 
thinks that if a foreign language is to be taught to a Native it should be English. 


The presence of 10,000 Europeans and 36,000 Asiatics complicates the problem 
of Native education in several ways. First of all there is the demand for funds for 
the other races, whose members are more able to express their needs and their require- 
ments. There is also the pressure upon the Natives for more varied and energetic 
forms of service. And there is the need for an education that enables each race to 
have a better understanding of both the actual and potential contribution of the other 
races. Owing to the presence of non-African races in comparatively large numbers, 
the policies pertaining to Native education in Kenya differ in some respect from those 
in tropical colonies and have some resembiance to those of Southern Rhodesia. 
Comparison of the latter Government and Kenya with tropical colonies reveals the 
paradoxical result that the educational claims of the non-African races have seemed 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE P37. 


to result in larger educational activities for the Native people than in many of the 
tropical colonies. This is partly explained by the larger economic developments, 
which result in more available funds, and partly by the opportunities for the Natives 
to participate in industrial activities that afford valuable training. 

In one important respect the Kenya policy differs from that of Rhodesia and 
emphasizes that of the tropical colonies in the determination to train Natives for 
industrial pursuits. In accordance with this policy Government has initiated several 
plans to stimulate and to aid in the preparation of Native artisans. The more 
important of these are grants to missions for the maintenance of technical depart- 
ments ; the organization of two government industrial schools ; the provision for the 
organization by Government Departments, including Railways, Public Works, 
Health, Agriculture, Postal and Telegraphy Departments, of training courses in 
their respective activities; the assistance of European farm owners to provide a 
Native school for their employees, and the encouragement of commercial and indus- 
trial firms to cooperate in the training of the Natives. Much has already been done 
by each of these agencies. At least 6 mission schools have been receiving grants 
for this purpose, and in 1923 they were training 879 carpenters and masons. The 
2 government schools had 249 pupils in carpentry and masonry. In both government 
and mission schools the pupils were also receiving a general education of considerable 
value. 

The Postal Department reported 68 pupils in the telegraphy course, of whom 14 
were in the class with manipulative skill equal to that of European telegraphists, 24 
were in class B of medium ability, and 30 still requiring long preparation and practice. 
In addition 49 are receiving sufficient training in reading and writing to enable 
them to enter the course. The Director of the Department estimated that by the 
end of 1923 there should be 100 fully trained telegraphists. The Uganda Railway 
shops are teaching blacksmiths, molders, mechanical engineers, porters, cleaners, 
and preparing pupils for other forms of more or less skilled labor required on the 
railway. The Public Works Department is training carpenters, masons and brick- 
layers. The Government hopes to organize a large training center to undertake the 
literary, commercial and artisan training of Native boys in Nairobi. The Agricultural 
Department has two centers for the training of selected Natives in the theory and 
practice of agriculture. The course covers a period of two years and includes a study 
of plant life, soils and tillage, manures, forestry, live stock and dairying. Each 
pupil has practical experience on the farm and cultivates a school garden for his 
own benefit. They are paid a sum sufficient to attract them to the agricultural centers 
and keep them in comfort. They are also given a ration of food and a plain uniform 
and blankets. The primary object of these agricultural schools is the training of 
Natives to become traveling instructors in the Department of Agriculture, In 
addition to this training of Native instructors, the European administrative and 
agricultural officers encourage and direct agricultural propaganda to increase the 
output of produce and to improve its quality to meet export demands. The Medical 
Department offers many opportunities for the training of Native health workers. 


118 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Each of the 23 Native hospitals not only ministers to the sick but trains Native 
youth as hospital assistants and sanitary inspectors. In 1923 the Director of Edu- 
cation assembled the representatives of six industrial firms to consider the extent 
of their cooperation in the training of Natives. These firms are engaged in saddlery, 
wagon and coach building, tinsmith and metal works, saw mills, brick and tile 
works and general building. All agreed that with the guidance of Government 
“ the numbers of trained African artisans might be easily and economically increased.” 
Even though these various forms of training are directly concerned with what is 
mechanical, they are an important contribution to Native welfare. The following 
paragraphs on the more general activities of missions and Government give promise 
of the broader education required for the all-round development of the African 
youth. 


GovERNMENT EDUCATION 


Government expenditures for education have been discussed at length in the section 
on European influences. It has been shown that all departments of Government 
contribute directly or indirectly to the welfare of the Natives. The total expenditure 
estimated for education in 1924 is £75,000 ; of this £37,000 is for the Natives, £24,000 
for Europeans and £11,675 for Indians, and the remainder for Arabs. The per capita 
expenditure for each European youth is approximately £12, for the Asiatic youth 
about £2, and for the Native practically negligible. In comparison, however, it is 
above that of a number of the tropical colonies. It is obvious that much more must 
be spent on these Native schools to relate education to such vital elements of life 
as health, agriculture, industrial skill, decencies of home life and character develop- 
ment, and to call out wise Native leaders. The Education Ordinance for 1924 
provides for increasing the responsibility of Government for Native schools. ‘The 
Department is to exercise more supervision and extend more aid. 

The most important government action in behalf of Native education within the 
last year is the appointment of an Advisory Committee on Native Education and 
the organization of a school for training visiting teachers to assist in the improvement 
of the small out-schools. The Ordinance also authorizes local school committees 
under the senior Administrative Officer of the district. The membership of the 
Advisory Board includes some of the most vigorous and capable representatives of 
the Government, missions and settlers. The interest in Native education manifested 
by all parties in Kenya during the visit of the Education Commission was one of the 
most impressive guarantees for the future development of the Native people that 
has been observed anywhere in Africa. In view of the wise government policy to 
work, for the present, largely through mission schools, only two government schools 
have been organized. Of the £28,110 for Native education for 1928, £13,805 were 
for government schools, £14,305 were for mission grants. There is a Department 
of Education under a Director who has devoted several years of thoughtful and 
faithful service to the education of Europeans, Asiatics and Natives, He has been 
seriously limited by the lack of assistance, 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 119 


Machakos School.—This institution, situated in the Ukamba Province, was opened 
in 1915. The staff consists of the Headmaster and assistant master, a carpenter 
and a mason, all of whom are Europeans. There are nine Native instructors, six of 
whom are academic teachers, and one mason, one carpenter and one tailor. There 
are 174 boys between the ages of 12 and 18 years. They are all boarders whose 
homes are in the Ukamba country. They pay no fees and are signed over by their 
parents to the District Officer for five years. During the first two years they receive 
elementary instruction in the vernacular, Swahili and English, in the three R’s and 
in gardening. Each boy has a garden plot on which experimental planting is con- 
ducted. Native games are encouraged. but football is the most popular recreation. 
They receive moral instruction on a plan drawn up by the European assistant master. 
No religious instruction is given, but boys are said to be free to go to services 
at the Mission. There are eight dormitories, each under the charge of a prefect 
chosen from the pupils by the headmaster. The Native teachers live with their 
families some distance away. Two meals a day, cooked by the boys in rotation, are 
served. Each boy has a bowl and a spoon, and meals are taken out in the open. 
Clothing consists of khaki coat, shirt and shorts, all made at the school. The earth 
latrines are sanitary and located well away from other buildings. 

The government plan for the institution provides for the organization of village 
schools throughout the area. Reports show that there are 11 of these out-schools 
with an attendance of about 800 pupils. There is evidence indicating a lack of co- 
operative understanding between Government and the Africa Inland Mission in the 
building and administration of the out-schools. The action of the Government is 
partly justified in the refusal of the Mission to accept government aid, and also by 
the belief that the Native people of this region are somewhat opposed to mission 
schools or indeed schools of any kind. Inquiries into this situation suggest the 
importance of a reconsideration of the whole plan. The mission out-schools in this 
district have qualities which the Government cannot afford to disregard. It is 
hoped that this inquiry may include a study of the organization of the Machakos 
school. As an educational unit there is much to commend in it. The institution 
compares favorably with those in Kenya and in other parts of Africa. It is believed 
that careful consideration of the institution by a committee of the Advisory Board 
will make possible the reorganization required to enable this institution to render 
a large service to Native education. Provision for religious instruction should easily 
be made on the basis of the broad experience of mission and British Colonial officers. 
Such an important subject cannot be wisely left to the sole responsibility of an 
assistant headmaster. A well-planned cooperation of this institution with mission 
schools will doubtless remove any limitations existing at present. It is urged that 
training shall have real regard for the educational needs of the Native people, and 
especially that the pupils’ respect for the cultivation of the soil be strengthened and 
their knowledge of improved methods of agriculture increased. 

Waa School.—This institution, opened in 1921 by the Educational Department, 
is situated near Mombasa. The Headmaster, a European trained in carpentry, 


120 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


masonry and building, is assisted by six Native teachers and two instructors. The 
pupils sign on for five years, board at the institution and pay no fees. Half of them 
are Native Christians, 40 per cent. are Mohammedans and the remainder pagans. 
The subjects taught during the first two years are the three R’s, hygiene and English. 
Drawing is taught to the highest classes. At the end of the second year technical 
training is provided. The apparatus includes European tools, sewing machines, 
and a circular saw run by electric power. The training has but little relation to the 
neighboring village life and seems to be designed chiefly to prepare for employment 
with Europeans. No religious teaching is given at this school, but pupils are allowed 
to attend services at the Mohammedan mosque or the mission chapel. The boys 
live in well-built round huts with mud walls and thatched roofs, three or four pupils 
to a house. The clothing consists of khaki shorts, white shirts and a red cap or fez, 
all made by the tailoring classes. The institution is well planned and administered. 
In some respects there is considerable regard for the Native customs of the pupils. 
It is emphatically urged that the training of the pupils shall be more directly related 
to service in the Native villages, and especially to encouragement of Native 
agriculture. 

Masai Native School.—This interesting and effective school was opened by the 
Political Officer in 1921. It is under the direct control of the Administrative Officer 
and is maintained entirely by the Masai Trust Fund, created from fines imposed on 
the tribe by the Government. The Headmaster was trained in the Navy, served in 
the Navy division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and finally in the King’s 
African Rifles. He came to Kenya as a farmer in 1919 and was appointed Headmaster 
of the Masai School in 1921. He is assisted by his wife, who is a trained and qualified 
instructor. The Native staff consists of the Masai teachers trained at a C.M.S. Mission, 
and one Kikuyu teacher from the Scotch Mission. There are at present 103 boarding 
pupils ranging from five to sixteen years of age. The pupils pay no fees, but they 
bring a number of cattle which supply milk and live stock for the schoolfarm. At first 
some pressure had to be exerted to obtain pupils, but now they come voluntarily. 
The instruction includes the three R’s and hygiene, with attention to physical 
exercises and gymnastics. The languages of instruction are Masai and Swahili. 
Every effort is made to relate the training to the life of the Masai. It is generally 
regarded as an excellent example of successful cooperation between Government 
_ and missions, not only in the use of Native staff trained by the missions, but also in 
the mutually helpful relationships with the Africa Inland Mission near by. 


THe CHurcu Missionary SOcretTy 
As in Uganda, so in Kenya, the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society 
were the first to enter the country. It was in 1844 that Krapf and Rebmann estab- 
lished their work at Rabai in the unhealthy coastal plain of Kenya. Their work is 
eloquently presented in the words of Dr. Garfield Williams : 


At this place and near by are the graves of many missionaries who in the early days laid down 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 121 - 


their lives often after but a few months’ service, for the unhealthiness of this part is proverbial. 
It was at this place that Rebmann lived for 29 years without returning home and where, finally, he 
was discovered quite blind, but still sticking to his post. At Rabai to-day there is a quite remarkable 
Christian school entirely staffed and organized by Native Christians, and, considering the material, 
the results must be said to be a great achievement. 

Such a beginning is worthy of the great services rendered by the missionaries 
of the C.M.S. as well as by all the others, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, from 
that day to the present time. At present the Society has 70 European workers and 
15 stations. It is the only mission with important work in the coastal, the highland 
and the lake areas of the Kenya Colony; the schools are herewith classified 
according to their geographical location. 


C.M.S. in the Coastal Province 

The reference already made to the beginning of C.M.S. work in this region indicates 
its historical importance. Geographically the work is divided into two parts, namely, 
the schools in and around Mombasa and the schools in the interior districts. The 
educational work in the Mombasa area centers around the Buxton High School and 
Frere Town near by. 

Buxton High School is the most important educational institution of the Coastal 
Province, and in the past has been one of the most influential as well as the highest 
in standards of all the institutions in Kenya Colony. In addition to the general 
instruction it maintains a training course for teachers especially fitted to teach in 
districts where the Swahili language prevails. As this language is the lingua franca 
of the Coastal Area, and is extensively used in other parts of Kenya and even to a 
limited extent in Uganda, teachers trained at the Buxton High School have many 
opportunities. The educational needs of the comparatively large urban population 
of Mombasa are in themselves sufficient to warrant the maintenance of a strong 
central school with teacher-training courses. For some time to come the Buxton 
High School will continue to supply teachers for the whole of the Coastal Area. The 
institution is furthermore responsible for a system of night-school classes offered 
to large numbers of Christian Natives who come to work in Mombasa. The staff 
consists of a fully qualified missionary educationist and his wife and a fairly ade- 
quate staff of Native workers. The educational work was well done, even though 
the building and equipment are quite inadequate. There seems to be considerable 
ground for the complaint that changes in government policy have seriously hampered 
the institution. 

Frere Town is the location of the long-established Divinity School of the C.M.S. 
It is the remains of a very important mission station around which freed slaves 
were settled when slavery was being abolished. The land will probably increase 
in value as the city of Mombasa extends in that direction. But it is generally 
‘admitted by practically all the missionaries to be quite unsatisfactory as the situa- 
tion for a divinity school.” The missionary in charge of the school has devoted long 
and faithful service to mission education. But his efforts are seriously handicapped 
by the location of the school. 


122 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Malindi, Digo and Tana River Districts have long been the scene of heroic 
endeavors. The Rabai school has already been mentioned. At Kaloleni there is a 
boys’ school, an excellent girls’ school with two lady missionaries in charge, and the 
beginning of a technical institution and 20 out-schools scattered over a large area. 
As there is only one missionary and his wife in general charge of this work, it is evident 
that the educational work cannot be satisfactory. The heroic services of these 
missionaries in maintaining the only uplifting influences among this rather difficult 
tribe clearly deserves the increased aid of both mission and Government. 


C.M.S. in the Ukamba Province 


Two very effective mission stations, at Wusi and Voi, are situated in the Taita 
District, the foothills of the famous Kilimanjaro Mountain, which is just over the line 
in Tanganyika. The Verbi and Maynard Missions, so called after their founders 
who still direct their respective stations, maintain the only educational influence in 
this region of great natural beauty as well as great fertility. Verbi’s Mission is 
technical and agricultural. Maynard’s is more generally educational. Evidence 
indicates that these stations, with the help of the Government, could give substantial 
assistance to the proper development of this great south-eastern section of the 
Colony. 


C.M.S. in the Highlands and Kikuyu 


The really great responsibilities of the C.M.S. are in the highland and lake areas 
where the overwhelming masses of the people live. The city of Nairobi is the head- 
quarters of the Society in Kenya Colony. The religious and educational work in 
the city is unique and important, for it supplies the only school opportunities to the 
great number of Native people who come to the city from time to time for work. 
Two men and three or four European women devote most of their time to the educa- 
tional work. The night school is especially important, not only for its educational 
influence, but for its moral and social effects in behalf of Native youth, who are 
subjected to urban temptations and away from tribal restraints. The city of Nairobi 
doubtless owes much to this school both for increased industrial efficiency as well 
as for the maintenance of moral standards necessary to the safety and peace of the 
city. In the actual highlands the C.M.S. has 7 station schools, 63 out-schools, and 
25 European missionaries. There is also a technical and normal training school at 
Kahuhia, and an excellent boarding school for girls. It is unfortunate that an ade- 
quate description cannot be given of these effective stations. Each station, with a 
European missionary and his wife in charge, supervises and encourages the work of 
several out-stations. Thus the friendly influence of civilization and Christianity 
is carried through personal contact to all of the little out-stations and their numerous 
pupils. There is much of adaptation in their method, and much more of friendship and 
Christian service. 

Kahuhia Institution.—This school is intended to provide teacher-training and 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 123 


technical instruction for the system of C.M.S. schools in the Kikuyu Province. There 
is also a well-organized girls’ school. The European principal and his wife are exerting 
an important influence, not only in the organization and administration of their 
school, but in the stimulation and direction of community activities that are helpful 
in numerous directions. ‘They have given serious consideration to the special needs 
of the Native people and have adapted their organization to those needs with much 
success. The boarding school for girls is the best-planned institution for Native girls 
in East Africa, especially in the simplicity and convenience of the girls’ dormitory. 
It is exceedingly unfortunate that the institution has lacked staff and funds to realize 
its full possibilities. It is equally unfortunate that the policy of the C.M.S. in this 
district has not seemed to encourage the centralization of advanced education and 
teacher-training in this institution. Such training will be increasingly necessary as the 
excellent station schools advance their pupils to higher standards. 


2 


C.M.S. in Kavirondo and the Lake Regions 


The C.M.S. has 20 European missionaries, 4 mission stations, and 214 out-schools 
in this large and populous district which it shares with the American Friends and 
several small American missionary societies. Kisumu is a small lake-shore city, 
the terminus of the Uganda railway and the landing station of several lake steamers. 
The C.M.S. missionary in charge of the extensive religious and educational work in 
this comparatively urban area, as well as widely scattered catechetical centers for 
miles in the highlands, is sadly overtaxed by his great responsibilities, Though he 
commands the admiration and gratitude of all who know his work, he cannot possibly 
realize his ideals. His influence in the Kisumu district is, however, quite remarkable. 
The Butere and Ngiya stations in the hill country of the interior maintain schools 
with especially effective departments for the education of Native girls. The largest 
school of the district is Maseno, which requires a more extended description. The 
parallel development of Butere and Maseno is said to be explained by the fact 
that they care for different language and racial groups. It is to be hoped that this 
difficulty may not deter Butere from sending the advanced pupils to Maseno for 
special training, for in the upper standards they should be prepared to continue their 
studies in the English language. The great weakness of the educational work in the 
Kavirondo district, to which owing to the virility of its tribes great importance should 
attach, is the lack of supervision for the 214 out-schools. They are controlled only 
by 4 European missionaries, their wives, and one or two women workers, all of 
whom have sufficient responsibilities without the extra work required in visiting 
these many out-stations. The spontaneous organization of religious centers on the 
highland farms of white settlers still further increases the responsibility of the 
missions. These little gatherings without adequate supervision are likely to become 
futile, or to be centers of unrest. Their potentialities as centers for the distribution 
of helpful influences warrant the expenditure of funds and the increase of staff. 
Undoubtedly, the most unique European influence in all the Protectorate is that of 
the Kavirondo Native Welfare Association organized by Archdeacon Owen and 


124 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


described by Dr. Garfield Williams as “ one of the most remarkable experiments in 
mass education to be seen in Africa.”’ 

Maseno School is the most effective and comprehensive center of education in the 
Kavirondo and Lake area. It compares favorably with the best institutions in 
the Protectorate. It is under the supervision of a European principal, who is an 
able educationist, a headmaster of the normal school and a headmaster of the 
technical department. The physician in charge of a well-equipped hospital and the 
European nurses devote some time to educational work. The Native staff include 
two head teachers, three senior teachers, six junior teachers and a capable Native 
clerk, who was formerly one of the head teachers. The pupils include 190 boarders 
and many day pupils. The normal school has 71 students training as evangelists, 
schoolmasters and clerks. There are 66 apprentices in woodwork, bricklaying, 
telegraphy, printing and tailoring. The new workshops and classroom have been 
built of baked bricks and roofed with tiles made at the Mission. The hospital and 
medical training school not only provide medical service for the large population, 
but offer training for nurses and medical helpers and instruction in first aid to the 
pupil teachers. The pupils are encouraged to engage in athletics. The general 
spirit of the school is good. There is an esprit de corps that assures enthusiasm 
in all undertakings and especially in service to the community. 


Kavirondo Native Welfare Association 

This Association, already mentioned as a great experiment in mass education, 
is undoubtedly a very significant illustration of the power of cooperation between 
Government, missions and Natives, and it is hoped that settlers also may be very 
soon united in support of the movement. The following summary by the Director 
of Education indicates the general character of the organization : 


The Kavirondo Welfare Association is a remarkable organization—an effort worthy of a great 
missionary. It came into being at the time of the Native political unrest in 1921-22. Archdeacon 
Owen upon his return from leave in 1922 took control of it, and diverted political agitation toward 
social development, with the result that the very Africans who in earlier years sought to drive him 
from Kavirondo now make him their refuge in trouble and the repository of their aspirations. 
Politics are now but little heard ; the latest brick building, the chances of the new workshop, the 
control of trade by Kavirondo, and the wonderful possibilities of water power are more satisfying 
subjects of conversation. With branches in every location, the Association is stimulating the people. 
They are beginning to think, and better still, they are beginning to work. Archdeacon Owen informs 
me that the Association is now becoming so big that he would be grateful if Government would 
detail an officer for the special purpose of developing industry and trade. His wide knowledge of 
the Provinces and his influence with the people are at the disposal of Government, but the movement 
cannot now be stopped nor allowed to go back. I shall be glad if Government will recognize the 
good work he has done and cooperate with him in satisfying the aspirations of these newly-awakened 
tribes. 

There are at present 70 locations of the Association in Kavirondo and about 5,000 persons in 
touch withit. Its objects are to encourage the Natives to provide better food, better clothing, better 
housing, better education and hygiene. All improvements are to be effected by the work of the 
members’ own hands. The promise taken by the full members as translated from the Constitution 
of the Association is as follows : 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 125 


“*T promise to keep the laws of the Association ; to plant 200 trees and to replace those that die ; 
to build proper latrines and to prevent flies from breeding in them ; to kill off rats as far as possible 
and to report any rats found dead ; not to foul the water in rivers, springs or wells ; not to aid or 
abet the marriage of girls under 16 years of age ; not to mix cow’s urine with milk ; to supply beds 
for my household and to supply bedclothes ; to clothe myself properly and to keep my clothes clean ; 
I promise not to get drunk.” 

A serious effort is made to avoid cleavage between the growing Christian community and the 
tribal chiefs. Every chief is by virtue of his office a Vice-President of the Association ; goverament 
officials also hoid honorary office. The Association is run on constitutional lines and aims at the 
closest cooperation between government officers, the chiefs and headmen, and the growing Christian 
community. Archdeacon Owen reports that the Association has important plans to raise the 
economic level of the people. Our latest move is to appoint an African as a development officer who 
will be an itinerating official to see that the members keep the vows of the Association in regard to 
tree planting and other welfare activities. Later on we hope that the Government will appoint a 
competent man to work with us in putting up water-mills for grinding maize. It is a most interesting 
time, and we are sowing the seeds of much future development. 


Tue CuurcH OF SCOTLAND MIsston 


The Missions of the Church of Scotland, including 8 central stations and 65 out- 
schools, all situated in the Kikuyu country, are a remarkably well organized system 
of mission schools under the supervision of 30 European missionaries. Dr. Garfield 
Williams, commenting on the work of the head teacher at Tumutumu, writes ; 


We can assure the Government that they will travel far and wide throughout the world to find 
a better educational work, Considering the time that the Mission has been organized it would hardly 
be possible to discover a more brilliant system of village education, Miss Stevenson, the head 
teacher, directs the school activities at the headquarters as well as the supervision of no less than 
43 little out-schools surrounding it. It is easy to make suggestions for improvement, but it would 
be very difficult to suggest any plans which Miss Stevenson would not long ago have introduced 
if government assistance had been available. The chief of these is now fortunately being provided 
by the Government plan to train and maintain visiting teachers. 


The Kikuyu station near Nairobi, begun in 1898, was the first in the Kikuyu 
country. Tumutumu, started in 1909, and Chogoria in 1921, are situated to the 
south and east of Mt. Kenya. Earlier paragraphs have shown that the Church of 
Scotland shares the responsibility for the fertile and populous areas of Kikuyu 
country with three other Protestant societies and two Roman Catholic missions, 
The Mission was originally founded by the Imperial British East Africa Company. 
The first station was placed in the Coastal Area, where the famous Stewart of Lovedale 
pioneered for a year with his well-known ideals of an education related to the needs 
of the people. Owing to health conditions this station was abandoned and the work 
transferred to Kikuyu. In 1900 the Church of Scotland became responsible for the 
Mission and sent some of their experienced missionaries from Nyasaland to the field. 
One of these, Dr. Clement Scott, had achieved distinction in Nyasaland, both as an 
architect and builder of the famous church and as an idealist with a vision of extensive 
evangelistic influences. The other was Dr. Henry Scott, an ordained medical 
missionary of 20 years’ service in Nyasaland, whose statesmanship organized the 


126 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Kikuyu Mission on the lines of its present work. These historical facts help to 
explain the variety of educational activities now conducted throughout the Mission. 


Kikuyu Station 

The Kikuyu Mission is situated within a few miles of Nairobi and exerts un- 
usual influence on Native education and Native affairs in general. The head of 
the station, Dr. J. W. Arthur, an ordained medical missionary, is a member of the 
Legislative Council to represent missionary and Native interests in the Colony. Owing 
to its location near the capital of the Colony and the unusually capable staff which 
have been at work from its foundation, the Kikuyu Mission is destined to have an 
increasing influence in all matters pertaining to the Native people. The staff of 10 
Europeans includes Dr. Arthur, the medical officer, 2 nurses and the directors of 
the five school departments, namely, normal, technical, girls’, agriculture and business. 
The Native staff consists of 2 medical assistants, 2 technical assistants and the 
headmaster of the elementary school. The total enrolment in 1923 was 563, of whom 
421 were boys and 142 girls. The pupils in the training classes numbered 109 boys, 
64 girls, all of whom were boarders at the institution. The numbers in each voca- 
tional department are: teacher-training, 31; carpenters, 21; masons, 27; hospital 
dressers, 11; all others, 11. There is also a nursery with 18 children. 

The elementary school offers instruction in the three R’s, the Gospels, hygiene, 
physical exercises, gardening and simple industry. The technical courses in carpentry 
and masonry give three years’ training to older boys and 5 years to those under 14. 
The entrance requirement forthese courses is equivalent to 4 years of school instruction. 
Hospital dressers and nurses are trained in the mission hospital under the direction of 
the doctor, European nurses and Native instructors. The courseis 3 years and includes 
both practice and lectures. The girls’ department gives a course varying from 2 to 
3 years in housekeeping, hygiene, mothercraft and sewing. The more advanced 
girls are selected for training in the hospital and in methods of teaching. The 
normal school requires instruction in the methods of teaching, literary subjects, 
simple agriculture and carpentry, and practice teaching in the night school. There 
are also vacation courses of 2 weeks’ duration for those who are actually teaching. 
The evangelists’ course includes junior and senior preachers’ courses, each of which 
embraces a period of 8 years’ instruction and practical work. Those who are con- 
sidered spiritually and mentally fitted for further instruction are offered 2 additional 
terms amounting to 5 years. The school day includes morning, afternoon and night 
classes. Much thought is given to the religious services and also to the general 
exercises of the institution, including physical drill, outdoor games and dormitory 
recreations. This bare outline is only a suggestion of the quality and extent of the 
educational and religious influences existing in the school. 

The 16 out-stations are well organized with 4 intermediate schools situated about 
10 miles apart, providing instruction up to Standards ITI or IV, each in charge of an » 
evangelist and a teacher. The intermediate schools are responsible for the village 
schools near to them, There are also, on European farms, a number of small schools 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 127 


supervised by the Mission. The total number of pupils in the out-schools in 
December, 1923, was over 300. The hospital, equipped with 80 beds and 6 cots, 
had 941 in-patients. The total number of operations in the year was 641, of which 
103 were major and 458 minor. The out-patient department reported 5,247 cases 
with 8,809 attendances. In addition to this extensive medical service the hospital 
maintains training for medical assistants and apprentices both male and female. 
The plant of the central institution has extensive areas of fertile land with a number 
of substantial buildings. In addition to the residences for the staff there are commo- 
dious stone structures for the main school, another for the normal school with 
accommodation for 30 pupils, a well equipped hospital, 2 stone dormitories for girls, 
a number of two-roomed bamboo buildings each housing 12 boys, and a church. The 
school and the church are lighted by electricity. 

The Alliance of Protestant Missionary Societies has initiated plans _ to 
erect a school of higher education to be situated on land adjoining the central 
station. The Church of Scotland has given to the Alliance 100 acres for this purpose. 
The Government has allowed a fund amounting to £5,500, collected by the Natives 
for troops during the war, to be handed to the Alliance for the purpose of providing 
a medical school for the training of Native students. This is the beginning of what 
it is hoped will become a College conducted on definitely Christian lines. Mr, Ernest 
Carr, of Nairobi, has offered £10,000 as a contribution to incorporate branches of 
higher training, provided Government gives £5,000 and places the College on its 
mission aided list. 


Tumutumu Station 


This station is situated in a densely populated Native section where the school 
wields a wide influence on the Native people. The work is under the supervision of 
10 Europeans and a number of Native teachers. The principal is an ordained 
medical missionary who has the confidence of government officials and settlers. The 
departments at the central station are teacher-training, technical, medical, girls’ 
training in home and village craft, and kindergarten. The well-organized system 
of 43 out-schools is so intimately connected with the central institution as really to 
constitute a part of its daily activities. Not only do the European head teacher 
and her assistant spend much time in friendly visitations and thorough supervision 
of these schools, but many of the Native teachers and their assistants are pupils 
of the central institution who spend half the day at the out-school and half the day 
in the normal training classes. This unusual grouping of a large number of schools 
about the central station is possible here because the density of the population is 
so great. The total number of pupils reported in the central and out-schools for 
1923 was 2,847, of whom 300 were in the Anglo-vernacular and 2,547 in vernacular 
classes. There are boarding departments for boys and girls. The apprentices 
and probationers in masonry and carpentry were 74. Teacher-training at both 
Tumutumu and Kikuyu is comprehensive and thorough in comparison with that 
given in most mission schools, The careful supervision of the well-planned systems 


128 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of the Scotch Missions has made possible the extension of classes to Standard VII. 
Practice in teaching includes work both at the central institutions and the out-schools. 

The station activities provide for the important community needs of health, 
housing, agriculture, industry, home and recreation, and therefore the Native 
teachers recognize the importance of these elements as part of their teaching work. 
Unfortunately, the very limited equipment in the out-schools robs many of these 
activities of their possible influence. Instruction consists chiefly of the three R’s 
and a little working gardening. The hospital renders a large health service to the 
many people of the neighborhood, though owing to lack of funds the buildings 
and equipment are simple, indeed almost crude. The medical work is essential 
in combating the ravages of prevalent diseases. Under the supervision of Dr. Philp, 
the capable medical missionary, who is both principal of the station and head of the 
hospital work, and two well-trained Scottish nurses, the Native assistants are receiving 
a valuable training in health service. The pupils in all the schools and the people 
of the community are encouraged to engage in healthful recreations. 

The influence of the Mission in stimulating the erection of better homes is clearly 
seen in the improved type of many houses near the central station. The plant 
includes several substantial buildings and a considerable amount of land. Lack 
of water has been a serious inconvenience, which it is hoped may be corrected when 
more funds are available. Many improvements are necessary in this respect as well 
as in others. 


Arrica INLAND MIssion 


The schools of the Africa Inland Mission are supervised by 60 American and 
European workers assisted by many Native teachers. The organization has about 
16 central stations, 7 of which are in Ukamba, and 8 in Kikuyu. Each station has 
numerous out-schools, aggregating about 90 for the whole Mission. The organization 
is independent of the control of any one religious denomination and, in accordance 
with its name, maintains work in the inland areas of Africa, with stations in 
Belgian Congo, Kenya and Tanganyika, and French Equatorial Africa. Its staff and 
support are from America, Great Britain and British Colonies. The Mission has 
not hitherto seen its way to accept grants-in-aid from the Colonial Government, in 
order to have complete freedom as to the control of its educational work. This has 
seriously limited the Mission financially in the maintenance of the schools. In spite of 
this disadvantage the educational work has been extensive and in many respects 
quite remarkable. A considerable amount of provision has been made for medical 
service and training for Natives as health workers. The three R’s have been taught 
with much success, and the pupils have received training in simple agriculture and 
village crafts. The Mission has been disposed to cooperate with Government and 
other missions. Recently an officer of the Mission was made a member of the Kenya 
Advisory Board on Native Education, and there is now hope that grants-in-aid from 
the Government will be accepted. This provision will enable the Mission to extend 
its educational work and to increase and improve both the equipment and the staff. 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 129 


The central station of the Mission is at Kijabe, in the Kikuyu Province. 'Teacher- 
training is maintained at this station and at Githumu. The other stations also 
provide some training, notably Mboni in Ukamba. At least three of the schools 
have boarding departments for girls with effective training in mothercraft and village 
industries. The station in the Masai Reserve has cooperated helpfully with the 
government school in relating religious and community training to the life of the 
Masai people. The Mission, begun in 1895, has made a very substantial contribution 
to the improvement of the Native people. 


Kijabe Station 

Kijabe is picturesquely situated at one of the highest points in Kenya, overlooking 
the great Rift Valley. The principal educational undertakings of the station are 
teacher-training, elementary teaching, technical instruction, a girls’ boarding home, 
a hospital, and an excellent school, well housed, for missionaries’ children in East 
Africa. The stationis really a community consisting of these departments and numerous 
houses for Native people who have been permitted to occupy mission land while 
their children are at school, or who live there with some permanency to assist in the 
cultivation of the large acreage owned by the Mission. 

The curriculum of the elementary schools provides four standards of instruc- 
tion, including the three R’s, geography, history, hygiene and drawing. The vernacular 
is the language of instruction. Swahili and English are taught in the upper standards. 
Serious effort is being made to organize teaching methods on sound and practical 
lines. The hospital, under the supervision of a medical missionary and his wife, 
who is a trained nurse, cares for many in-patients who come long distances. The 
Native assistants receive valuable training in health service. Bible training and 
religious exercises occupy a large part in the school program. The girls’ boarding 
home is carefully supervised and provides training in the essentials of home life. 
The institution has a few substantial buildings, including the central building for the 
hospital. The Mission is, however, in real need of more and better housing facilities, 
especially for the care of the numerous in-patients. 


Mboni Station 

This is the head station of the various day and night schools in the Ukamba 
Province. It is located at the edge of a high elevated plateau occupied by many 
Natives which commands a beautiful view of the hills and valleys of the Wakamba 
country. While the station has not extensive buildings or activities, the quality of in- 
struction is good. The Rev. G. W. Rhoad, the skilful missionary in charge, has con- 
structed a remarkable road up the mountain side. He has been especially successful in 
winning the confidence of officials and settlers under rather difficult conditions. The 
department for girls is under the direction of two American teachers, who are in- 
structing them in home industries and village craft. The out-schools of this station are 
especially well built. The plan has been to have a home for the Native teacher and 


130 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


wife adjoining the school, which is a substantial building with a room at one end 
where the supervising missionary can spend the night on the occasion of his visit. 


Githumu Station 


This station, situated in Kikuyu Province, not far from Nairobi, has primary, 
elementary and normal departments and a girls’ boarding school. It has 24 out- 
schools, the largest number attached to any A.I.M. station in Kenya. The work is 
favorably regarded by those who have visited the station. The proposal to accept 
grants-in-aid will enable the Mission to effect important improvements in the school 
plant and the educational activities. 


Frienps’ Arrica Mission 


The Friends’ Mission, established in 1902, maintains an important educational 
work in the Kavirondo country, under the supervision of 15 American workers. 
There are 5 main centers and 116 out-schools. The buildings are substantial and 
well planned. An officer of the Church Missionary Society refers to the missionaries 
of the Friends’ Mission as “‘ particularly well qualified for developing industrial 
and agricultural education.” He reports one of them so competent in this respect 
as to have won the position of consultant for neighboring European settlers, thus 
affording an admirable example of cooperation between missionaries and the settler 
community. The missionaries seem to reflect the versatility of the Middle West 
American farmers who have had long experience in dealing with education in rural 
communities. The educational work is well conducted, though rather limited in 
extent. The plan has been to organize a series of stations, each under an American 
family responsible for the out-schools. The stations have pioneered in the intro- 
duction of fruit trees, vegetables and grains suitable to the country, as well as in 
teaching the Natives how to take advantage of the waterfalls for milling purposes, 
to construct roads, to make bricks and build houses and introduce mechanical 
appliances needed in the new country. A boys’ boarding department is maintained 
at one station. Another station is entirely devoted to the training of girls, who 
board at the school and learn not only in the classroom, but by practice in the home 
activities of the institution. 

The one outstanding weakness is that the station work is not sufficiently related 
to the central station at Kaimosi, which has not itself been developed adequately 
as a central station. During the early years when the work was being established 
in the various localities the need for a central station was not apparent. But now 
this need is emphatic in order that the Mission may have more advanced Native 
teachers and religious leaders to assist the American missionaries in the supervision 
and teaching of the increasing numbers of advancing pupils. Owing to the Mission’s 
refusal of grants-in-aid from the Government the inadequacy of the funds to maintain 
extensive work has been serious. Through the organization of the Kenya Advisory 
Committee on Native Education, to membership of which an officer of the Friends’ 
Mission has been appointed, the Mission has been convinced of the wisdom of receiving 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 131 


grants-in-aid. The increased funds thus received, together with larger aid from the 
home society in America, will enable this splendid Mission to extend and improve 
its valuable educational work. 


Kaimosi Station 


Kaimosi is the natural center of all the Friends’ stations. It has a boarding 
department for boys, a small but effective technical training work in carpentry and 
masonry, the beginnings of teacher-training, a hospital under the direction of a phy- 
sician and a trained nurse, who have arrived since the visit of the Commission, 
water-power machinery for sawing and grinding, and extensive acreage of land. 
There are three American families and one woman missionary in charge of the work. 
It is very unfortunate that this excellent work should not have the extra staff and 
equipment necessary to enable the whole Mission to advance its work along lines 
necessary to its influence. Should staff and equipment be supplied the Mission will 
undoubtedly recognize the method of gradation from out-school to station school 
and from station to central station schools. Such an arrangement would place the 
Friends’ Mission among the best in East Africa. 


OTHER PROTESTANT MISSIONS 


In addition to the 4 large missions already described there are 7 other Protestant 
organizations which maintain schools in the various provinces of Kenya. The 
United Methodist Mission, a British organization, is conducting religious and 
educational work in the unhealthy regions of the Coastal Province. One of the Lutheran 
Missions of Sweden has 8 stations in the Jubaland Province. The other 5 missions 
are largely of American origin, staff and support. The Gospel Mission has 3 
stations in the Kikuyu Province. The Seventh Day Adventists have 5 stations 
situated in the South-western Section near the Tanganyika Border. The African 
Institute, the Nilotic Mission and the Lumbwa Industrial, each with one station, 
are independent missions in the Kavirondo area. 


The United Methodist Mission 


This Society entered East Africa in 1862 and has maintained a heroic service 
under most difficult conditions of health and among a backward type of people. The 
stations are distributed over a wide area from the border of Tanganyika to the Tana 
River and are practically the only influence for the improvement of a discouraging 
type of Native. Reports indicate that they deserve the sympathetic and vigorous 
help of the Government so that they may increase the effectiveness of their much 
needed work in this neglected region of Kenya. 


Lutheran Swedish Mission 


This Mission shares with the Roman Catholic Society almost complete re- 
sponsibility for the education of the Natives in the North-eastern Section of Kenya. 


132 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


In the formulation of plans to realize the educational responsibility of the Colony 
it is obvious that Government should extend its guidance and encouragement to the 
people of this region. 


Seventh Day Adventists 


This Society began work in the Colony in 1906 and now has 5 stations in the 
region south of the Nyanza Province near the border of Tanganyika Territory. 
Though it was not possible to visit the stations, the Mission is well known for its 
practical character. It is the main educational influence in that section of Kenya. 


African Institute Missionary Board 

This is a one station Mission situated near Maseno in the Kavirondo area. The 
staff consists of 5 Americans aided by 4 Native teachers at the central school and 
27 out-school helpers. The enrolment at the main station is about 300, and 100 at 
the out-schools. The activities of the central station include a boarding department 
for girls, an elementary school and a teacher-training institution. The administration 
of the work is vigorous and effort is made to relate the training to the needs of the 


people. 
Nilotic Mission 

This station was established in 1906 by a capable American woman who had 
succeeded in organizing and maintaining, with the help of American friends, an 
interesting and effective work for the improvement of the community. It is situated 
quite near the town of Kisumu and should be cooperating with the other missions 


in Kavirondo. 


Lumbwa Industrial Mission 

This interesting Mission, independent of the control of any missionary society, is 
conducted by an able missionary of the American Friends. The work was begun in 
1905 with an unusual understanding of the economic and tribal condition of the 
people. The staff includes 2 Americans and 4 Natives at the central station and 
18 helpers in the out-schools. The enrolment reported is 60 pupils at the main 
station and about 300 at the smaller schools. The Mission is said to have exerted 
considerable influence on the economic and moral condition of a people who were 
particularly backward. in addition to schoolroom instruction there is a small 
carpentry shop, a saw mill with a 60 horse-power water turbine, and fields in which 
coffee, maize, flax and other crops are cultivated. Two large dams have been con- 
structed, one of which is 22 ft. high. It would appear that this work should be 
connected with the general system of schools in the Province. 


Gospel Mission 
The 8 central stations of the Gospel Mission are situated in the Kikuyu Province 
between the schools of the C.M.S. and the Scottish Mission. ‘There are girls’ dor- 


PLATE XV 





SCHOOL WORK IN AKAMBA AND KAVIRONDO 
(a) Technical and Industrial Mission at Wusi, Taita ; (b) Visiting an Out-school in 
Akamba District ; (c) Boys at a Lathe, Maseno. 


PLATE XVI 


‘numjynuny, ers peydsoyy oy} JO owls (p) § soorjuoaddy 
jeanynousy (9) § Meg 0} Surutea'T (q) : AdasanN oy} JO syuvdns9O 


AAOMIM ‘SNOLLVUAdIO AO SHLLISHUAATA 


: KropUMAO(T SP) (7?) 





KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 133 


mitories at two of the stations and elementary schools at the three. There are also 
16 out-schools. Reports indicate that the educational work is effective. 


Roman Catuouic Missions 


Three large and important Roman Catholic missions have maintained schools in 
most of the provinces of Kenya for many years. Each of these Societies has the 
usual European staff, including Fathers, lay brothers and sisters who supervise and 
conduct classroom instruction, industrial and agricultural training, and hospitals 
and dispensaries which both minister to the sick and train Natives for health service. 
Some of the schools are well planned and effective, with numerous out-schools that 
provide a limited amount of instruction in the ordinary school subjects. Others are 
said not to have attained the standards of education for which Roman Catholic 
missions are noted elsewhere. The cooperation of these societies through the Kenya 
Advisory Committee on Education promises to result in valuable reorganizations 
in their educational work. 


Mission of the Holy Ghost 


This French Order, which began work in Zanzibar, extended its stations to 
Kenya in 1892. Schools are now maintained in the Mombasa region, and in Tanaland, 
Jubaland and Ukamba. Hospital and dispensary work is carried on at most of the 
stations. The Fathers of this Order are said to be the pioneer coffee planters in the 
country. 


Italian Catholic Mission 


This Mission began work in East Africa in 1902 and now maintains 15 stations 
in the Kikuyu Province. The headquarters are at Nyeri, where there is a large coffee 
plantation with machinery for the preparation of coffee for market. At this station 
there is also industrial and agricultural work, and a printing press where books in 
the Kikuyu language are printed and a paper in the vernacular for free distribution 
to the Natives. Classroom instruction and teacher-training of an effective type are 
provided for the boys in the boarding school. Each station has numerous out-schools. 
Considerable attention is given to Native customs, and Native songs have been 
adopted for use in the mission schools. 


Mill Hill Mission 

This Mission, also known as St. Joseph’s Foreign Mission Society, with head- 
quarters in Uganda, where it maintains an important work, established stations in 
Kenya in 1903. Its schools are chiefly in the Kavirondo country. The Kakamega 
station receives from Government grants-in-aid to train masons and carpenters. 
The standards of educational work are said not to be equal at present to those of the 
Society in Uganda, but there are indications of a plan for the development of its 
schools. 


134 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Ill. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The foregoing pages, outlining the unusual economic and sociological conditions 
as well as the significant educational activities in Kenya, present the elements of a 
really dramatic situation in the beautiful highlands of that most interesting African 
Colony. The revolutionary developments that have taken place are vividly reflected 
in the following words of an American missionary who has lived through the remark- 
able changes which still are rushing on : 


No Native tribes in the world have been subjected to such a forcing process as those of Kenya 
Colony. Nowhere has the whole system of civilization been dropped so suddenly and so completely 
into the midst of savage races as here. In 1895 I crossed from Mombasa to the mainland in a dugout 
canoe and walked into the interior. Twenty-eight years later these infant races are shaking their 
rattles and talking politics! It is a situation that may well give pause to missionaries and officials 
alike, for it has within it the seeds of an unprecedented development or an appalling disaster. 


It has been seen that the presence of the relatively large numbers of both Europeans 
and Asiatics in the highlands of temperate climate and fertile soil has differentiated 
the Colony from all other tropical areas. These non-Native residents have sometimes 
been thought to be dangerous liabilities and sometimes invaluable assets in the 
progress of the Colony and especially in the welfare of the Natives. Here, as in every 
part of the world where peoples of varied stages of barbarism or civilization have met, 
there have been the inevitable conflicts of both economic and sociological forces. 
The determination to control or to exploit both physical and human resources has 
sometimes seemed to be in conflict with a sense of responsibility and the duty of 
trusteeship, which should always prevail in the relationship of advanced nations to 
backward peoples. 

The British Government has issued pronouncements of international significance 
for the complete elimination of any form of forced labor. The Land Tenure Com- 
mission has stated the principles to determine the delimitation of Native Reserves 
so that the Natives may be guaranteed a sufficiency of land, both for their present 
needs and for their estimated increase for the next generation. It now remains 
for the Colonial Office and the local Government to make these principles effective. 
Government Departments are giving increasing attention to Native development 
as regards health, agriculture, industrial skill, decencies of home and education. 

Missionary societies from Europe and America, both Protestant and Roman 
Catholic, have maintained a notable variety of educational activities for the civiliza- 
tion of the Native people. Every one of the fifteen organizations is making a con- 
tribution to Native welfare that should command the gratitude of all who are concerned 
in the progress of Africa and Africans. From the heroic services of Krapf and 
Rebmann, the C.M.S. missionaries who entered the unhealthy and dangerous lowlands 
of the Coastal Area in 1844, to the present day, there have been devoted and capable 
missionaries, some of whom deserve to be ranked among great international statesmen. 
Stewart of Lovedale and the Scotts of Blantyre and Kikuyu were men whose work 
would compare in wisdom and practical value with those of the great servants of 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 135 


humanity in any age. While the schools of many of the missions have too frequently 
transferred European methods to the exclusion of those required in Africa, their 
manner of life and the incidental activities of their mission stations have laid the 
foundations of health, agriculture and character necessary to a primitive people. 

Settlers and traders, representing the average of European society in morals and 
motives, have come in large numbers to engage in economic pursuits. They have 
developed agriculture, commerce and industry in accordance with the standards 
prevailing in the home countries. Asiatics have come in larger numbers to work as 
laborers, mechanics, clerks, traders. Both Kuropeans and Asiatics have combined 
to build roads and railways and to introduce the necessities and the conveniences of 
civilization. They have undoubtedly contributed elements of progress that could 
have come in no other way. Inevitably there have been mistakes and injustices. 
Their relationships to the Natives in the past have not always been helpful. With 
full recognition of the unfortunate and unfair elements of these relationships, it 
seems certain that the advantages to the Natives have been far greater than the 
disadvantages. Comparisons of Kenya with other parts of Africa, where non-Africans 
are not influential, are all favorable to the conditions of Natives in Kenya. In 
some respects the Colony partakes of the advantages of both non-tropical and of 
tropical colonies. It has been seen that the educational activities resemble those 
of non-tropical areas in extent and variety and that the policy to train Natives for 
skilled industrial pursuits follows the tropical policy. 

The serious consideration of the relationship of Europeans to Africans is pointing 
emphatically to the conclusion that colonial progress depends upon the healthful 
and normal development of the Native people. The method of quick and ruthless 
exploitation is being more and more discredited in every part of the world. The 
settlers of Kenya are asserting that “ they are not there to snatch quick wealth by 
mining gold or precious stones and then to quit, that Kenya is to them not merely 
a place in which to make a living, that the mountains, forests, brooks and lakes 
have taken a singularly strong hold upon their affections, that it is to them their home 
—a thing to be defended at all costs.’ It is to be hoped that they may recognize that 
the most essential element of defence is the policy of sincere and whole-hearted 
development of the Native people, so that they, too, may enjoy their legitimate and 
ancestral claim to the benefits of their Native land. Such a policy is based not in senti- 
mentality, but in sound economics for both settler and Native, and in social justice 
whose demands are in the long run essential to true progress. Even the experience 
of industrial undertakings in Europe and America shows clearly that prosperity 
requires the utmost regard for the conservation of human elements as well as the 
effective use of the physical resources. Agricultural economics prove the necessity 
of just and helpful provisions for the cultivator as well as scientific methods in the 
handling of the soil. 

No African Colony can make adequate use of its resources without the help of the 
Native people. The most drastic limitation on African development at the present 
time is a sparse population that has been destroyed in the past by war and disease, and 


136 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


is still being depleted by preventable sickness. Next to health is agricultural and 
industrial skill, enabling the Natives to make effective use of the soil. Both health 
and skill depend upon the decencies of the home and a womanhood intelligent enough 
to care for childhood and prepare youth for citizenship. Inextricably involved in 
health, work and home is the necessity for healthful recreations. Fundamental to all 
is the development of character able to bear the responsibilities of manhood and 
womanhood. ‘These personal qualities are dependent upon an economic and social 
system that makes for contentment and community pride. Possibly the most 
essential of these community elements is the relationship to the land and the realiza- 
tion of the principle outlined by the Colonial Commission on Land Tenure. This is a 
large program of personal and community development, but it is the least that can be 
required in a sound policy of colonial welfare. 

The success of such a policy will be the unprecedented achievement prophesied by 
the American missionary quoted in an earlier paragraph. Failure in it may lead to 
the appalling disaster to which he pointed. ltis obvious that these extensive and vital 
essentials to success cannot be realized without the sincere cooperation of all parties 
concerned. Government at home and in Africa must be of one mind as to principles 
and methods. Missionaries and settlers must agree to work with mutual helpful- 
ness for the general good. Public opinion in the Colony must be responsive to the 
larger perspective of thought and ideals in Great Britain. Suggestions and criticisms 
offered in Great Britain should be based on a sympathetic understanding of the 
difficulties and conditions in the Colony. Native thoughts and feelings should have 
an opportunity for normal expression, as strikingly illustrated in the Kavirondo 
Native Welfare Association, organized by Archdeacon Owen with sympathetic and 
thoroughgoing understanding of the Native mind. The cost in time and patience 
necessary to the cultivation of genuine and complete cooperation will be amply 
repaid in the peace and prosperity of the Colony. Such cooperation seems to be 
an essential condition of any degree of success. Fortunately there is evidence that 
the spirit of cooperation is working both in the Colony and in Great Britain. There is 
real basis for hope that whatever of error there was in the past will not be repeated. 
Without such hope the educational recommendations presented herewith would be 
largely futile : 


1. The recent appointment of the Advisory Committee on Native Education 
with representatives of Government, missionaries and settlers, is a significant indica. 
tion of the vigor and wisdom with which Government is encouraging cooperation in 
education. Such a Committee effectively administered for a period of years will 
doubtless work changes beyond the expectation of many now participating in the plans 
of the Committee. 

2. Equally significant is the government provision for the training of Natives 
to be visiting teachers to the numerous out-schools, so that they may become centers 
of influence for the improvement of the masses of the Native people in the essentials of 
health, agriculture, industrial skill, village crafts, homes and character. ‘Fhis action 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 187 


sympathetically and wisely carried on will have results of value not only to Kenya, 
but as an example to all East African Colonies. The statement on the Training of 
Teachers for Village Schools prepared by the Colonial Secretary is not only a guarantee 
of a comprehensive and wise plan of such training, but it is worthy of careful study 
by all colonial officers with responsibilities for Native education in Africa. 

3. The searching inventory of the educational possibilities of all Government 
Departments as well as of commerical, industrial and agricultural undertakings, which 
was made in April, 1923, by a Government Commission, should be made the basis 
not only for further survey, but for the use of such possibilities through the active 
encouragement of the Government. It has been shown that the Government Depart- 
ments in Kenya and other Colonies do exert considerable educational influence. A 
well-directed policy to stimulate such activities and to correlate them with one 
another under the Department of Education would have immense returns at com- 
paratively small cost to the Government. 

4, These actions and others to be presented greatly increase the responsibilities of 
the Director of Education and his Department. It seems obvious, therefore, that 
the administrative position, staff and resources of the Education Department should 
be substantially improved and increased. The Director, during his twelve years of 
faithful service, has made many excellent recommendations and plans which have 
been nullified by the lack of funds, staff and authority. It is hoped that the increase 
of the educational appropriation in 1924 is a promise of still greater increases to 
come. 

5. Plans for educational administration, including both supervision and organiza- 
tion, have been presented at length in the earlier chapter of this Report on that subject. 
The prompt adoption of some of the more important suggestions for supervision 
made on the spot in March, 1928, indicates the rapidity with which supervision 
will undoubtedly be improved. 

6. The organization of the schools maintained by the fifteen missionary societies, 
as well as the schools and activities of Government, into a correlated and coordinated 
system is an undertaking of considerable difficulty and importance. While it would 
be extremely unfortunate to systematize these varied activities so as to eliminate 
the individuality of their special contributions, it would be very helpful to have 
sufficient correlation for mutual exchange related to the great needs of the Colony and 
the numerous necessities of the Native people. The following suggestions are offered 
for consideration as the basis of some of the reorganization needed : 

(a) That every Mission shall endeavour to develop its schools so that they 
may provide a gradation from the out-schools to a central institution which shall 
maintain facilities for training teachers and exercise supervisory influence in all the 
schools. In the larger Missions this may require that one of the out-schools shall be 
selected as a center to assist in the supervision of the rest. All the larger missions 
now have stations that serve as intermediate schools between the central station and 
the out-schools. The smaller Missionary Societies, with only one or two stations, 
should establish relationship with the central school of a larger mission. Reference 


138 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


to the description of the Church Missionary Society schools in the Coastal Province, 
Kikuyu and Kavirondo reveals the necessity for three central institutions in this 
mission, so that the numerous schools in each area, situated far apart and highly 
differentiated as regards tribes and geographical conditions, may each have a 
training center adapted to the special needs as well as a supervisory center, 
geographically convenient. 

(b) It seems important that Government shall consider the. educational needs, 
not only of the populous South-western Section with almost 400,000 children of school 
age, but also the Coastal Area with 40,000 children and the North-eastern Area 
with 30,000. The difficulties of the last two areas situated at such a distance from 
government headquarters may easily be overlooked. Heroic missionaries are serving 
the Colony with little encouragement and scant resources. 

(c) The plan of the Protestant Missionary Alliance to organize a central institution 
for the training of pupils from all the Protestant Missions deserves serious consideration 
and will be discussed in another recommendation. It is hoped that the Roman 
Catholic Societies may consider a similar plan. 

(d) The increasing participation of Government in Native education, as well as the 
need for the development of a central institution to unite the facilities of all Govern- 
ment Departments for the teaching of science and the practical arts, point definitely 
to the ultimate organization of an institution to which pupils from both Protestant 
and Roman Catholic schools may go for special training. For the present the plan 
is being wisely limited to the preparation of visiting teachers for the improvement 
of out-schools throughout the Colony. 

7. The facts relating to the proposed Kikuyu Alliance College have been presented 
in connection with the Kikuyu station of the Church of Scotland Mission. The main 
facts are that the Church of Scotland Mission has given 100 acres of land situated 
near the Kikuyu station and only a few miles from Nairobi, that £5,600 have been 
received from the War Relief Fund, and that Mr. Carr, of Nairobi, has offered £10,000 
more, on condition that Government shall participate financially and place the insti- 
tution on the list to receive grants-in-aid. A substantial building with facilities for 
laboratory use has already been erected at a cost of £4,000. Owing to financial 
stringency Government has not yet agreed to the conditions of Mr. Carr’s gift. The 
War Relief appropriation required that provision be made for medical training. 

Any plan for advanced education in Kenya must consider this substantial beginning 
of an institution to provide education above that given in the numerous Protestant 
schools of the Colony. The success of Fort Hare College, organized along similar lines 
in the Union of South Africa, points to the possibilities of such an institution in Kenya 
and suggests tts methods. The present location near Nairobi, and adjoining an insti- 
tution with education ideals such as have been developed at the Kikuyu station, is 
the best in the whole Colony. The essential features of the plan as at present con- 
ceived are as follows: 

(a) That the institution shall be organized as an intermediate college after the plan 
of Fort Hare College. It is realized that for the present the standards of instruction 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 139 


must be sufficiently low to admit students from the highest existing central schools of 
the Colony. It must include instruction and practice in methods of teaching, agri- 
culture, the sciences, the necessary historical subjects related to the life of the Colony, 
Africa, and the more significant events in human development. 

(5) That the sciences taught shall be preliminary to the medical training, which 
would include two years of the study of physiology, anatomy and therapeutics. The 
final two years of systematic and clinical medicine and surgery must probably be given 
by the Government in Nairobi. It is clearly understood that the development of the 
institution, and especially the pre-medical courses, must be a gradual evolution suited 
to the capacities of the pupils and the available resources of the institution. It is also 
understood that this more advanced medical preparation is not to take the place of 
the present training of medical assistants and dressers as it is now being conducted in 
a number of government and mission hospitals. 

There is much to support the claims of such an institution apart even from the 
desire of the eleven Protestant Societies for a school with a Christian interpretation of 
education. The advantage of a location adjoining a mission school with remarkable 
educational influences in its history and organization, as well as its proximity to 
Nairobi, have already been mentioned. The substantial beginning in the assignment 
of 100 acres of land, the gift of £5,600 from the War Relief Fund, with all the sentiment 
attached to such a gift, and the promise of £10,000 more from reliable sources, is not 
to be lightly regarded, not only financially but also as an indication of favorable 
public opinion and judgment in support of the proposed institution. Government 
must soon face the requirement for advanced education, and it seems that a government 
institution can integrate its standards much more satisfactorily with a central school 
for the eleven Protestant Societies, and a similar institution for the four Roman 
Catholic Societies, than with each of the fifteen Societies and their varied ideals and 
methods. Not the least advantage to Government is that of economy, both in 
equipment and staff. Grants-in-aid to two such institutions will have much greater 
results than the organization of a complete institution to suit the needs of the lower as 
well as the higher grades of mission schools. 

8. Undoubtedly the most important consideration in all educational plans is 
the determination of the objectives to be aimed at in the school system. All the 
evidence concerning Kenya indicates the acute need for the improvement of Native 
health, to ensure the normal increase of population. The use of the great resources 
of the Colony requires skillin agriculture and industry. These and the other essentials 
have been outlined in the opening paragraphs of this Summary and described at 
length in the chapter on “ Objectives and Adaptations.”” The Director of Education 
has outlined both objectives and organization in his splendid statement, Lessons derived 

from Twelve Years’ Administration of African Education. The education of Native 
women cannot be urged too strongly as an essential both to the improvement of health 
and the morals of the people. Several good beginnings have already been made by 
the mission schools. The officials of the Colony recognize the importance of religion 
as an element in education and as the foundation and coloring of school activities. 


140 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


9. The great diversity of Native languages in this extensive Colony demands a 
well-defined policy as to languages of instruction. The general principles underlying 
the selection have been briefly mentioned in the chapter on ‘‘ Objectives and Adapta- 
tions.” Kenya has four main Native languages and several less important ones. 
The main languages are Ki-Swahili, Kikuyu, Luo Kavirondo and Bantu Kavirondo. 
These languages should undoubtedly be recognized as the first language of instruction 
in their respective areas. The choice of a second language for more general exchange 
has aroused differences of opinion, All agree that English should be taught to . 
advanced pupils in every part of the Colony. The Government Commission of 1919, 
the present Colonial Secretary, who is an educator of wide experience in the East, 
and most of the missionaries support the view of the Director of Education, that 
“in the course of time Ki-Swahili should cease to be taught, except in the Coastal 
Area where it is the vernacular, and English should be taught as a second language, 
even in the village schools, as soon as reading and writing in the vernacular have 
been mastered.” 

The recognition of the better organized African languages in their respective areas 
confirms the wisdom of the policy of using mission schools as the agencies of education, 
for the reason that missionaries remain more continuously in one section, reducing 
their language to writing and publishing books at great expense of time, energy 
and money. 

10. The Kavirondo Native Welfare Association deserves the support of Govern- 
ment, missions and settlers as a wise effort to enable the Natives to give normal 
expression to their feelings and opinions as well as to form cooperative undertakings 
on behalf of health, recreation, economic necessities, and their claims to justice 
whenever they feel that they have not been intelligently or justly treated. This 
Association realizes the purposes of such organizations as the Joint Native Welfare 
Councils of the Union of South Africa, the Interracial Committees of America, and 
in some respects the Transkeian Native Councils, all of which have made possible 
the natural exchange of views between the divergent races, Government has wisely 
accepted participation in these associations, and it is hoped that missionaries and 
settlers may enter actively into the arrangements for exchange of ideas. 

11. The organization of schools on settlers’ farms is vital both to the settlers and 
to the Native workers employed by them. Such schools, properly organized and 
directed, can be of great value in the increase of agricultural skill and in the main- 
tenance and improvement of the morals and morale of the Natives who are employed 
in large numbers by the settlers. The diversity of languages spoken by the Natives 
who have come from numerous tribes is a very serious obstacle to effective education 
in these schools, This difficulty justifies the desire of settlers to use Ki-Swahili on 
theirfarms. Thisis probably inevitable under present conditions of Native education. 
Whatever the difficulties as to language and other well-known conditions, the advan- 
tages to all concerned of farm schools are sufficiently real to warrant the expenditure 
of much thought and considerable sums of money. 

12. The inadequacy and uncertainty of facts concerning the number and distri- 


KENYA COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 141, 


bution of the Native people suggest the importance of a simple but real census of 
population. In a progressive Colony like Kenya it is difficult to understand the 
absence of reliable facts of this character. In no British Colony in Africa has it been 
so difficult to formulate a trustworthy statement relating to the number of Native 
people, the areas in which they live, the divisions according to sex and age. Even 
the brief outline of facts in this chapter points emphatically to the conclusion that 
Kenya cannot be developed without a Native population with a normal increase. 
Sound economics, good government and effective education depend vitally upon a 
knowledge of elementary facts concerning population. It is, therefore, urged that 
provision shall be made as soon as possible for an enumeration of the Native people 
according to the methods of the British Government. 


F2 


CHAPTER VI 
THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 


HE need for educational activities in Uganda has recently become acute. A 

number of conditions have contributed to this situation. The most immediate of 
these is the phenomenal increase of cotton raising by the Natives, resulting in a corre- 
sponding increase of income which it is difficult to believe they are in a position to use 
wisely. Under the influence of an education relating to their daily needs, their pros- 
perity can become the means of bettering sanitary conditions and otherwise improving 
community life. There is also the danger that the interest in the financial returns from 
cotton may prove so attractive as to exclude attention to food crops. Only emphasis 
on balanced agricultural education will correct this unfortunate result. 

An even more important element in the demand for educational reorganization 
is the need of mission societies for assistance to continue their great achievements 
in education. Missionaries were not only the pioneers in opening Uganda to the in- 
fluences of civilization and Christianity, but they have also maintained practically all 
the educational activities which exist up to the present time. With full appreciation 
of the services of the past, it is now generally recognized, alike by mission societies and 
Government, that educational facilities must be enlarged and better adapted to the 
needs of the Native people. This applies especially to the supervision of the little 
out-schools, now comparatively ineffective, whose potential influence is great. 

The most important elements of all in plans for the reorganization of the school 
system are possibly the unique recognition by the British Government of the Native 
people and the extensive use of Native administration. Many Native organizations 
which enable the people to give expression to their opinions have been wisely main- 
tained. Such an arrangement is either futile or dangerous unless adequate oppor- 
tunity for a sound education is at the same time given. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Uganda* is a British Protectorate in East Africa, 500 miles inland from the Indian 
Ocean, and immediately west of Kenya Colony and south of the Anglo-Egyptian 
Sudan. Thoughthe Equator crosses the southern part, the altitude and large lakes 
moderate the tropical heat so that the temperature is usually agreeable to Europeans. 
The total area, 110,000 square miles, equals that of Italy. This includes 16,000 
square miles in various lakes, a water area equal to half that of Lake Superior. The 
estimated population in December, 1922, was 3,200,000, including 5,600 Asiatics and 
1,300 Europeans. The progress of Uganda under European influence, beginning 
with the entrance of the missionary in 1877, is a notable evidence of the work of 
missionaries, Government and economic undertakings. 


* Uganda=the Protectorate ; Buganda=a province; Baganda=people of Buganda. 
142 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 143 


THE The geographical and tribal distribution of the people have educational, 
PEOPLE economic and governmental significance. The Government has wisely 

_ arranged the political areas as much as possible on tribal lines. The larger 
geographical divisions with their approximate population and area are reported as 
follows in the 1922 Blue Book : 





Area in Number per 
District. Population. Square Square 
Miles. Mile. 
Buganda Province . . . 786,000 22,370 35 
Eastern Province . . . 1,175,000 36,292 33 
Western Province . . . 577,000 13,766 42 
Northern Province . . . 438,000 23,734 19 
Rudolf Province se) cee Re 150,000 14,1388 11 
Total ery es 3,126,600 110,300 28 


It is interesting to note that the density of population increases from the com- 
paratively sparse population of the Rudolf Province with only 11 per square mile 
to the Eastern with 33, Buganda with 35 and the Western Province with 42. It is 
not possible to describe the tribal differentiations in these provinces. Some of the 
tribes are large in number and powerful in influence, others are small and unimportant, 
The best known are the people of Buganda and of Ankole, who have traditions of 
rulers extending back for 500 years. In the Bibliography at the close of the Report 
a selected list of books and other sources of information open to administrators, 
missionaries and students regarding these tribes will be found. 

Native control is continued as far as possible by the British Government in 
Uganda. It is as yet more extensive in Buganda than in the other Provinces. The 
Kabaka of Buganda exercises direct rule over the Natives through the Lukiko, 
a body of 89 Native members, including the Prime Minister, the Native Chief Justice, 
the Treasurer, the chiefs of the 20 Counties or their representatives, 3 notables from 
each County and 6 additional men of importance nominated by the Kabaka. The 
Lukiko discusses ali matters concerning Native administration and submits to the 
Kabaka resolutions passed by a majority. These require the sanction of the British 
Governor. The court of the Lukiko and the courts of the sub-chiefs try cases in 
which both parties are Natives. Peasants cultivate their farms as tenants of the 
chief, paying rent and land tax to the Native Government or a month’s work in 
lieu of it. They also do a month’s work on roads or other works of utility or 
pay ten shillings. In addition they pay a poll-tax of from ten to fifteen shillings 
according to province to the British Government. 

The Native people of Uganda have suffered much from the ravages of disease. 
In a number of sections the population is actually decreasing on account of venereal 
and other diseases. Venereal disease is exceedingly common, especially among the 
Baganda. Malaria is prevalent throughout the Colony, but especially in Busoga and 
the lower levels of the Northern Province. Sleeping sickness is now under control 


144 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 










EARS TPSchEN 


Bee eras Ti Ach: PROVINCE 





© ©. 2 
ort Masindi 
eT ents 
S Homa 













on MTELG OF 

lane ese ZA 
ce ‘ 4 Naburiale 

4 Skors = 
Kabarols ss k 











L—~ 
MI RUWENZORI | 


AO NeKeOslie 


ee 


f 

i rd 
' Kabaley °7 

i ‘J . 

i f 


at 


VN, TANGANYIKA, 
“TERRITORY 


Encutsy Mies 
hy) 50 








THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 145 


and in many districts has been practically eliminated. Care of women in child-birth 
is generally lacking. Medical treatment for all diseases is still inaccessible for the great 
masses. Many years ago Sir Harry Johnston remarked that “ If ever a race needed 
a Puritan revival to save it from extinction, it is the Baganda.” It is no less true to 
say that an education related to the health of the people and taught even by the village 
schools is essential to health propaganda. 

The ownership of the land is as a rule communal. Certain chiefs received land 
from the Government in the advent of British administration. Very little of the 
land is held by European planters or concession holders. There js considerable 
variety in the chief occupations of the people of Uganda. Most of them of course 
cultivate the soil and raise cattle. The Baganda—especially the women—are good 
farmers and, like the large tribes of the Western Province, raise and keep cattle. 
Bananas are the principal article of food and grow everywhere. The most notable 
agricultural development in Uganda is the cultivation of cotton, principally in the 
Eastern Province and Buganda. It is estimated that the Native growers will receive 
over 2} million pounds sterling for the cotton grown in 1924. 

All the tribes have some skill in Native handicraft. The Baganda, like other 
tribes on the lakes, are noted for their large canoes of excellent workmanship, and 
also for road-making and Native house-building. A few tribes smelt iron and make 
agricultural implements and weapons. There is, asin Africa generally, skill in basket 
and mat weaving, in the production of pottery, bark cloth and personal ornaments, 
beads, ivory, shells and in the dressing of skins. A number are expert in the making 
of flutes, drums and lyres. 

Some customs relating to family life are fairly uniform throughout the colony, 
others are almost as varied as the tribes. The importance of careful study of these 
customs is urged on those who have any responsibility for the education of the Native 
people. A study of the recreations of the tribes and especially of their songs and their 
dances, with a view to their purification and adaptation, would be most profitable in 
the organization of sound recreations in school and in the redemption of the community 
from the beer drinking and moonlight orgies which are all too common in their 
harmful influences on both health and morals. 

The tribal religions of Uganda resemble those of Africa everywhere. Superstition 
and fetichism are universal except among tribes under the influence of Christ; anity. 
Fear is the main controlling emotion of their religion and the influence of spirits 
is usually believed to be malignant. Fortunately the influence of Christianity has 
spread with great rapidity. At present the chief Kings of Uganda as well as the 
Native prime ministers and the most influential chiefs are Christians. 

The following table from the Blue Book for 1922 shows the number of adherents 
reported as connected with the Anglican and Roman Catholic Missions in the 
Protectorate. Liberal allowance must be made for the varying significance of 
the terms used by the Churches where missions are at work : 


146 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 








Total White Mill Ttalian 
Adherents. C.M.S. Fathers. Hill. Fathers. 
Buganda pessoa, 298,525 81,016 179,166 33,343 —_— 
Wil Province e772) ee O atoe 25,939 41,793 a —- 
HAProviInce <u see: 78,0381 33,207 — 44,324 — 
Ne Province hemieiee see 33,150 5,277 12,105 — 15,768 
Total . . . . 472,488 145,489 238,064 18,167 15,768 


According to these estimates the total number of Christian followers in the Pro- 
tectorate probably exceeds 500,000. It appears therefore that about one-sixth of 
the Native population of Uganda already professes Christianity. Of this number over 
half are in Buganda. The Eastern Province with a population of over 1,000,000 
has, according to the Blue Book, only 80,000 Christian followers; the Western 
Province with a population of almost 600,000 has 68,000 followers; and the Northern 
Province with 440,000 Natives has only 33,000 followers. In the Buganda Province 
are to be found 80,000 out of the total number of C.M.S. adherents, and 200,000 out of 
the 327,000 reported by the Roman Catholic societies. The Protestant Africa 
Inland Mission reports about 150 followers in the Northern Province. It has not 
been possible to ascertain the number of Mohammedans in the Protectorate. Reports 
indicate that they are not numerous and they appear to be decreasing. In Buganda 
their number is supposed to be 50,000. The activities of the Christian Churches are 
becoming more effective in every part of the Colony and promise in the not distant 
future to exert their influence among all the people. 


THE Uganda is rich in physical resources and natural beauty. As 
COUNTRY already indicated, the numerous large lakes and the high elevation 
temper the tropical heat and contribute to the healthfulness as well as 
to the variation of crop and animal production. The average height of Buganda is 
4,000 ft. above sea level ; that of the Western Province is 5,000 ft. ; of the Eastern 
Province 8,400 ft. The Protectorate is famous for its high mountains; Ruwenzori, 
16,794 ft.; Elgon, over 14,000 ft.; and three extinct volcanoes ranging from 12,000 to 
13,500 ft. on its southern border. Even the lowest part in the Colony, Lake Rudolf, is 
1,560 ft. above sea level. The lake areas are well distributed among the different 
Provinces, constituting in Buganda one-quarter of the Province, in the Eastern 
Province over one-fifth, in Rudolf one-twelfth and in the Northern Province one- 
twentieth ; even the Western Province has 455 square miles of lake surface. 

Though a statement of the exports gives no idea of the great fcod crops or of the 
domestic animals which are raised in considerable numbers, it offers the most definite 
available measure of productivity of Uganda. The total value of exports for 1923 
amounted to £2,300,000 sterling. By far the most valuable of all the crops is cotton, 
which amounted in the year 1928 to 340,000 centals, valued at £1,936,000. In 1905 
oniy 180 ewts. were raised. Since then there has been a fairly steady increase in 
amount of cotton grown; in 1914, 94,000 ewts. were produced ; in 1915, 117,000 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 147 


ewts.; in 1921, 291,000 ewts. The fluctuations in the market price have resulted 
in very disturbing changes in the total income. The most striking instance is the 
income for nine months in 1920 when cotton sales rose to £3,779,000. Indications 
for 1924 are that the cotton crop will bring the Natives money to the amount of 
over £2,500,000. It is evident that these tremendous fluctuations in income for one 
crop require the serious consideration of those concerned in the welfare of the Native 
people and the Colony. The experiences of the Gold Coast with the too exclusive 
cultivation of cocoa and of the Southern States in America with cotton as the one 
crop are filled with warning to the cotton growers of Uganda. 

The export next in value is coffee, a crop which has been fluctuating with a ten- 
deney to decrease. In 1923 it amounted to 41,000 cwts., valued at £108,000. The 
export of chillies amounted to 18,000 ewts., valued at £16,500. Other exports in 
the order of value are ivory, £59,000 ; hides, £29,000 ; sheep and goat skins, £15,000 ; 
simsim, £24,400 ; rubber, £10,000 ; ground nuts, £2,700. Tea, fruits, cacao, timbers 
and other minor articles are also exported. In addition there are extensive crops 
of plantains, bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava, maize, tobacco, rice, for use in the 
country. Most English vegetables and flowers and fruit of both tropical and tem- 
perate zones can be cultivated in many parts of the Colony. 

The estimated number of live stock for the year 1918-19 was as follows : cattle, 
575,000; sheep, 288,000; goats, 805,000; mules, 33; donkeys, 822.” These 
estimates are said to be much below the normal owing to the ravages of rinderpest 
which swept the Protectorate during 1918 and still prevails. 

The forests of Uganda are numerous and evenly distributed throughout the Colony. 
Six of these are reported to be of great value. One of the richest, with an area of 
140 square miles, is in Buganda. Its situation on the Victoria Nyanza, with 
good roads to the important commercial centers, have made it possible for forest 
companies to introduce modern timber machinery and to develop a profitable industry. 
The other forests are of varied extent ; one is 160 square miles; another 80 square 
miles; another 230 square miles; and another from 150 to 200 square miles in 
area. In view of the drastic denudation of forests by the Natives in so many sections 
of Africa, the possession of these large forests is of great significance to Uganda. 


EUROPEAN Kuropean influence was introduced into Buganda, in 1877, in res- 
INFLUENCES ponse to a letter from the traveler, H. M. Stanley. A party of C.M.S. 

missionaries—one of the earliest and best known was Alexander 
Mackay—traveled there by Zanzibar and the south end of the lake. Of the original 
party of eight only two survived the first year of work. These were joined a little 
later by another party who had made their way by the Nile from Khartoum. In 1879 
a party of French Roman Catholic missionaries arrived. The next twenty years 
were filled with difficulties—civil wars, persecutions of Native converts, and great 
sacrifices on the part of the missionaries. In 1885 the first Bishop, James Hannington, 
was murdered on the outskirts of Uganda at the instigation of the King. The 
Christians were attacked by Mohammedans and driven from Buganda. Through 


148 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the help of the Imperial British East Africa Company the Mohammedans were 
driven out and the Christian Natives reestablished in power. The Anglo-German 
Agreement in 1890 placed Uganda definitely in the sphere of British influence. 
Captain, now Sir Frederick, Lugard was sent by the Company to Uganda and after 
great difficulty succeeded in establishing the Company’s influence. In 1892 the 
Company proposed on financial grounds to withdraw from Uganda. Through 
support given by the C.M.S. they decided to continue their hold. The Government 
sent Sir Gerald Portal to investigate the situation and to report on the advisability 
of establishing a British Protectorate. After some fighting and negotiations with 
Native kings and Mohammedans, the British Protectorate was established in 1894. 
The final clash with Native rulers occurred in 1897, when Mr. Pilkington, one of the 
greatest C.M.S. missionaries, lost his life. In 1899 Sir Harry Johnston was sent as 
special Commissioner to investigate the resources of the country and to place the 
administration on a settled basis. In 1900 he drew up the Uganda Agreement, which 
made the utmost use of Native administration. 

In addition to the Governor there are four Provincial Commissioners and sixty 
other administrative officers distributed over the Provinces and districts of the 
Protectorate. These officers maintain the high standards for which the British 
Colonial Service is well known. The statesmanship of Sir Harry Johnston, the first 
Governor, in the recognition of the Native rulers has been amply justified. Govern- 
ment officers of Uganda are noted for their genuine interest in Native welfare. An 
interesting evidence of the intimacy of experience and knowledge of some of these 
officers is in the fact that one of the Provincial Commissioners was formerly the 
tutor of the present Native Kabaka or King of Buganda. 

The most definite available measure of government activities in the Protectorate 
is in the study of the expenditure as reported in the Colonial Estimate for 1924: 

Total Government Expenditures St EERO Peat betel ted Fire £995,899 

I. Education, agriculture and health . . . . £288,416 
Education, £20,839 ; agriculture, £60,247; 
medical, £116,518; municipal, £40,817. 


Il. Territorial administration -. . . . +. « « 186,189 
Governor, secretariat, Native affairs. 


III. Military, police and prisons was 146,144 
Military, £69,850; police, £58,152; 
prisons, £18,142. 

IV. Public Works, post office and telegraphs, 
timber supply Faibss ay ° 170,006 


Post office and telegraphs, £23,157 ; 
public works, £141,263 ; timber supply, 
£5,586. 

The above abbreviated table represents about 72 per cent. of the total estimated 
expenditures for 1924, and classifies them according to the order of their relation to 
the welfare of the Native people. The proposed expenditure for 1924 amounts to 
practically £1,000,000, which, eliminating war and famine expenditures in the 
budget for 1923, represents an increase of almost £109,000 on the permanent depart- 


PLATE XVII 





IN UGANDA (1) 
(a) Bishop Tucker Memorial College, Mukono ; (b) Mission Hospital, Mengo. 


PLATE EC VLEL 





IN UGANDA (2) 
(a) Girls’ Boarding School, Iganga ; (b) The Fish Market, Kampala ; (c) School at Mill Hill 


Mission, Iganga ; (d) The King’s School, Budo, 


PLATE XIX 





IN UGANDA (3) 
(a) Camping in Kigesi ; (b) In the Ruwenzori Range ; (c) A Lesson to Ward Girls, 
Toro. 


PLATE XX 





*spooyos Avy OY} JO YAOAA : UOTJIQIUX opeurnqeN (p) £ Tooyos YST oy} Jo 
YAOAA + UOLJIQIUXG opeunqeBN (9): BIOSN ‘surnaqy YIM AIMOT, (Q) $ BIOSN SosnoFT VAYLN (”) 
(+) VONVON NI 


ei eee gone 


Wee. ee 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 149 


ments of Government. Reductions amounting to about £41,000 are proposed on the 
items for military, transport, post office and miscellaneous. The chief increases for 
1924 are for charges on account of public debt, from £14,170 to £50,000; pro- 
vincial administration, from £72,700 to £91,000 ; medical and hospital, from £91,490 
to £116,500; education, from £14,600 to £20,839; agricultural, from £20,500 to 
£28,700; veterinary, from £17,400 to £20,300; forestry, from £10,000 to £11,200 ; 
municipal, from £30,900 to £40,800; geological, from £5,800 to £7,400; public 
works, from £116,800 to £141,300. It is evident that most of these changes are in 
the direction of improving the Protectorate and its people. 

Returning to a consideration of the opposite table, the first group includes 
expenditures for education, medical department, municipal expenses and agricultural, 
veterinary and forestry departments. The amount for education represents about 
2 per cent. of the total expenditures and the total for Group I about 28 per cent. of 
the whole. The proportion expended for the Medical Department is quite liberal. 
To this sum should be added the municipal expenses, which are also largely concerned 
with sanitation. The appropriation of £28,700 for the Agricultural Department, 
£20,300 for the Veterinary and £11,200 for forestry are above the average in the other 
Colonies. In view of these comparatively liberal appropriations, the sum of £20,839 
for education is exceedingly small. When Government recognizes the possibility of 
relating education to the health, agricultural and character needs of the people, the 
appropriations for schools will doubtless compare more favorably with those for 
police, military, veterinary or even hospital expenditure. The activities of these 
departments and especially the Medical Department deserve the appreciation of all 
who are concerned in the Native people. The unfavorable health conditions call 
for extensive administrative action. The effective cooperation of a well-organized 
school system would multiply the influence of all of these departments many times. 

The following quotation from the report of a government officer in 1924 
indicates the success of the Health Department : 


Great efforts are being made to extend medical services generally and to combat venereal disease, 
‘the energies of the Medical Department, combined with those of the maternity and child welfare 
scxemes conducted by the Church Missionary Society and the Mill Hill Mission, are no doubt respon- 
sibe for the improvement shown in the health returns for last year. In the two last years the 
courtry has been relatively free from the grave epidemics of plague, smallpox, cerebro-spinal 
meniigitis and influenza, all of which diseases are endemic. Minor outbreaks of plague still occur, 
and erdit is due to the sanitation staff for their prompt and effective suppression. The extensive 
anti-veiereal campaign previously conducted over a limited area from the Central Native Hospital 
at Kamala has been extended over the country. 

The relamation of tsetse areas on the islands in Take Victoria is carried on under a separate 
staff of offijals, and this work in the islands and in the sectors of the mainland, which were depopu- 
lated throujh the great sleeping-sickness epidemic of 1804-6, was begun in 1919 and has proved 
most successil, over 11,000 of the remnants of the original population being now repatriated, and no 
further outbreak has occurred so far. Strict measures under the sleeping-sickness rules are being 
observed and ax still considered necessary. The same staff carries out work for the clearing of tsetse 
areas in differen\parts of the Protectorate. Research work is carried out in a combined medical and 
veterinary laboraory, and bacteriological work is done at the Mulago Laboratory. 


150 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The appropriations for territorial administration include, besides the salaries and 
expenses of the Governor and the Commissioners, the Native Government and the 
administrative agencies dealing with the Natives and the general order of the Pro- 
tectorate. The civilizing influence of the political service is one of the most important 
contributions to the welfare of the people. The appropriations for these activities 
constitute 18 per cent. of the total. 

The estimates for the military, the police and the prisons amount to £146,000, or 
14 per cent. of the total. These appropriations are being gradually reduced. Asitis 
only 27 years since the Natives were in open rebellion, the need for the military and 
the police has been real. Their activities have by no means been limited to repression. 
The Native soldiers and police receive a valuable training and in the main exert a 
helpful influence in the Protectorate. The prisons also provide discipline and training 
for the Native offenders. With full recognition of these Departments, and especially 
of their need in the past, the time has doubtless come when the appropriations should 
be rapidly diminished. 

The expenditures for various forms of public works, estimated at £170,000, or 17 
per cent. of all expenditures, include the regular appropriations and the extraordinary 
expenses of public works, also the cost of post office and telegraphs and the expenses 
for the government timber supply. The Public Works Department is responsible 
for the extension and maintenance of highways, public buildings and the physical 
equipment required by the Government in opening up the country. There are about 
1,000 miles of main roads suitable for heavy traftic and possibly twice that length of 
earth roads. The telegraph system connects the principal districts. Postal service 
is maintained at district and trade stations throughout the Protectorate. The 
proportion of expenditures on this Department is much less than that of other 
Colonies. This is probably explained by the fact that there are only two small 
railways, one about 62 miles in length and the other only 7 miles. The educational 
significance of the Public Works Department and related activities is not only in the 
training of the Natives but in making it possible to carry the influences of Christianity 
to the outer districts. 

It remains to consider the services of missionaries, traders and settlers. The work 
of the missionaries is described at length in the educational section of this chapéer. 
Unfortunately there are no adequate records of the activities of the traders and 
settlers. The following table, based on the estimated population, given in the Blue 
Book for 1922, presents an interesting comparison of the European, Asiatic and Native 
people in the Provinces : 


European. Asiatic. Native. 

Buganda LEP ReaTT, ote POETS bee ae Lak 7728 2,259 786,006 
Eastern Pees. phot. Sh Reve eee fare 2389 2,947 1,175,00 
Western oy ou hot <tc:t este ytd eee 115 1638 577,00 
Northern iiticise pasha ve Ff vont sarees 129 160 438300 
15/,600 


Rudolf +s ccickesipe Fei' s\ darnctly eae eeieeaaaes — — 











1,261 5,529 3, 26,000 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 15) 


About half of the Europeans and a third of the Asiatics are women. In Buganda, 
where both Government and missions have their headquarters, the ratio of 
Kuropeans is about 1 European to 1,000 Natives. In the Eastern Province the 
proportion is 1 European to 5,000 Natives ; in the Western and Northern Provinces 
1 to about 4,000 Natives. The concentration of Asiatics is in Buganda, where 
there are 3 to 1 European; and in the Eastern Province where there are about 
10 to 1. Here they are rapidly increasing owing to the cotton boom ; in the Western and 
Northern Provinces they are only slightly in excess of Europeans. ‘The Asiatics handle 
much of the retail business and the buying and collecting of raw cotton from the 
Natives. There are some important Indian firms in the Protectorate, but the great 
bulk of the trade is in the hands of Europeans, the majority of whom are British sub- 
jects. According to the Blue Book for 1922, there were 146 European plantations, of 
which 100 were in Buganda, and 27 Indian plantations, of which 20 were in Buganda. 
The number of both Europeans, chiefly settlers, and of Asiatics, has increased quite 
rapidly. If the civic, educational and religious interests of the Natives are to be 
adequately developed there must be a proportionate increase of Government .and 
mission workers in education. 


II. EDUCATION 


The missionaries, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who have played so 
large a part in the history of Uganda, have up to the present had practically the 
whole education of the country in their hands. With the exception of some recently 
erected government buildings at Makerere, near Kampala, and of some centers 
where assistant medical workers are trained, all the school buildings and teaching 
staff belong to the missions. An educational system which branches out into the 
whole Protectorate has been brought into being in cooperation with the Native 
chiefs, but without any supervision from the Colonial Government, and until recently 
without any financial support. It is an educational achievement of which missions 
can legitimately be proud. Considering that educational work began in the kingdom 
of Buganda only thirty years ago, and that in some of the areas of most rapid 
development in the Eastern Province education was introduced only a dozen 
years ago, the progress is amazing. The education of girls began even later than 
that of boys. It is noteworthy that at the present time there is no great difference 
in the number of boys and girls under instruction. Now that Government is actually 
entering into the educational situation, the near future should see such a cooperation 
between the Government, the missions and the Native people as will conserve all that 
is best in existing agencies, increase their efficiency through sympathetic supervision 
and adequate money grants, and relate the whole educational system more clearly 
than ever to the organized tribal life as well as to the highest possibilities of the 
Native people. 

The best available measure of the adequacy of school facilities in Uganda is the 
comparison of the number of children of school age with the number reported in the 


152 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


schools. The approximate number of children of school age is 640,000. According 
to the government Blue Book for 1922, the total number of Native children receiving 
instruction was about 157,000. Of this number 18,000 are reported to be in various 
kinds of central schools and 189,000 in the little out-schools. It is well known that 
a large proportion of the latter are very limited in the quality and quantity of 
instruction and that the attendance is most irregular. With full allowance for the 
poverty and educational ineffectiveness of the little out-schools, the proportion of 
children in the schools of the Protectorate is larger than that in most African 
Colonies. 

It is important to note that even the 18,000 in central schools are mostly in the 
lower elementary grades. According to English standards, 500 is probably a liberal 
estimate of those who have attained the third or fourth standards and 100 will 
include all that are in standards above the fourth. This fact is of very great signifi- 
cance in estimating the provision made for education in Uganda. Even accepting 
the enrollment of 157,000, the proportion of that number to the total number of 
children of school age is less than 25 per cent. While every credit should be given 
the missions for their success in extending education, it must be emphatically under- 
stood that only a good beginning has been made. According to British or American 
standards it would be difficult to classify the 189,000 in a school system. The most 
that can be said for a majority of them is that they are under some kind of moral 
influence and ready to receive instruction when it can be given. 

The distribution of the school enrollment throughout the Provinces is both 
interesting and significant : 


1. Buganda Province, with 157,000 children of school age, is said to have 58,500 children in 
school, of whom 10,600 are in central schools and 47,900 in bush schools. More than a third of the 
pupils are in the schools of Buganda Province. The concentration is far greater in the higher 
schools, which contain almost two-thirds of the central school attendance in the Protectorate. 
This is largely explained by the fact that all the large schools are in or near Kampala. The location 
of Makerere, the government school, in Kampala still further increases this concentration. 

2. The Eastern Province, with 235,000 children of school age, has 70,500 children in school, of 
whom 3,600 are in central schools and 66,900 in out-schools. The increased prosperity of the Eastern 
Province, due to the large amount of cotton cultivation, has stimulated the mult iplication of schools 
so that the number in 1924 is doubtless considerably larger than that in 1922. This increase is 
however, chiefly in the little out-schools. 

3. The Western Province, with 115,400 children of school age, has a reported school enrollment 
of 21,000, of whom 2,100 are in central schools and 18,900 in out-schools. 

4. The Northern Province, with 87,600 children of school age, has an enrollment of 5,060, of 
whom 660 are in central schools and 4,400 are in the out-schools. The proportion of children in 
the schools of this province is both below that in other provinces and in other parts of Africa. 


The principal mission organizations maintaining these schools, with help obtained 
in recent years from Government, are the Church Missionary Society, the Mill Hill 
Fathers and the White Fathers. The Italian Catholic Mission and the Africa Inland 
Mission, a Protestant organization, have organized a few schools in the Northern 
Province. The following table presents a summary of the pupils in the central and 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 153 


out-schools of the three larger organizations, distributed according to provinces, on 
the basis of the British Blue Book of 1922 : 


C.M.S. Mill Hill. White Fathers. 
Out- Out- Out- 
Central. Schools. Central. Schools. Central. Schools. 

Uganda total :— 3,056 93,5385 4,836 29,040 9,122 15,427 

Buganda Province a oe 0G 37,671 1,652 2,048 6,829 8,231 

Western rs Pha! 314 12,885 = ee 1,825 5,876 
Eastern 73 ef 448 39,904 3,184 26,992 a ~ 

Northern Fy o) oe 198 3,075 — — 468 1,820 


The Italian Roman Catholics report an agricultural school with 620 pupils and 
an industrial school with 80 pupils. The Africa Inland Mission has a number of bush 
schools with a total enrollment of 455. The figures in the table for the Mill Hill 
schools do not include the 218 pupils in their more advanced schools, nor are the 481 
pupils in the higher schools of the White Fathers included. All the missions report 
decided increases since 1922. The Church Missionary Society, for example, reports 
an increase from about 97,000 in 1922 to 180,000 in 1924. The division of Uganda 
as a field of religious and educational activities among the mission societies is notable. 
The C.M.S. has extensive work in each of the four provinces. The Roman Catholic 
societies have divided the field so that the principal work of the White Fathers is in 
Buganda and the Western and Northern Provinces, and most of the schools of the 
Mill Hill Fathers are in the Eastern Province and Buganda. While many years ago 
there were serious misunderstandings between the Protestant andthe Roman Catholic 
missionaries, there now seems to be complete accord. Usually there are missions of 
the C.M.S. and of a Roman Catholic society located in the same areas without any 
evidence of friction. ' 

The following reference to the financial support of education by the Native people 
is quite significant : 

Finance.—One of the most remarkable features of mission education in Uganda is the degree 
in which it is being financed by the fees of the people. These fees, chiefly collected in central and 
boarding schools, amount to twice that given by Government as grant-in-aid. Grants are also 
appropriated by the Native Parliament and large gifts are given from diocesan funds made up 
of collections from Natives. In addition to this, practically every out-school is a gift from the 
Native community. If all the voluntary gifts of the Natives to mission educational work could 


be computed it would be realized more clearly how comparatively small is the government grant 
of £10,000. 


It is important to understand as clearly as possible the number and distribution 
of the more advanced schools. The distribution of the out-schools has been fairly 
well indicated in the statistics already given. Some idea of the number of the upper 
schools has been shown in the figures concerning pupils in the central schools. While 
the upper schools differ both in type and in quality of work they may be classified into 
the following groups : 


154 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


1. Makerere Government School for Natives, situated at Kampala, was opened 
in 1922 and is designed to be the highest school in the Protectorate. 

2. The highest mission schools are the King’s School, Budo, of the C.M.S.; St. 
Mary’s College, Rubaga, of the White F athers ; and St. Peter’s School, Nsambia, of 
the Mill Hill Fathers. These schools and Makerere, all situated in or near the town 
of Kampala, are the centers of educational activities in the Protectorate. The White 
Fathers maintain two seminaries for the training of theirclergy and two normal schools, 
one for men and one for women. The Mill Hill Fathers have a normal school at 
Nazigo. The Mukono School of the C.MLS. is for the training of Native teachers and 
clergy. Gayaza, belonging to the C.MLS., is the most advanced school for girls in the 
Protectorate. 

Maternity schools are conducted at the C.M.S. Hospital and the Nsambia Convent 
and simple medical training is given at the Government Hospital. The White 
Fathers’ technical school at Kisubu is well staffed and equipped to train Native 
mechanics. While educational requirements for the maternity and health services 
are not advanced the training centers are making a very important contribution to 
education. All the schools of this class have boarding departments with European 
supervision, and are intended as training centers for the whole Protectorate. In 
addition to these institutions, each missionary society has several provincial stations 
with European staff and boarding departments. Some of these are educationally 
quite effective, even though they are offering instruction limited to the lowest elemen- 
tary standards. 

3. The second grade of mission schools include about 100 of lower elementary 
standard. A few of them are known in Uganda as “‘ High Schools,” but the majority 
are called ‘‘ Central Schools.’ The local meanings of both terms are entirely different 
from their significance elsewhere. The few high schools differ from the central 
schools chiefly in the higher level of efficiency attained owing to the presence of a 
European headmaster, and in the fact that they have properly supervised boarding 
departments. The number of these schools is probably less than 10. The so-called 
central schools, of which there are 80 or 90, are in some instances quite effective ; 
in others, they can scarcely be distinguished from the best of the sub-standard out- 
schools. Their curriculum is supposed to include instruction in English. As a rule it 
is very badly taught, owing to the fact that few of the Native teachers have adequate 
knowledge of the language. 

4. The number of out-schools is estimated to be about 2,000. The C.M.S. report 
800 with an attendance of 130,000; the White Fathers, 500 out-schools, with an 
enrollment of 16,000; the Mill Hill Fathers, 750, with about 30,000 pupils. The 
Africa Inland Mission reports 17 schools with an enrollment of 455 and the Italian 
Fathers about 700 pupils. Reference has already been made to the uncertainty 
of these figures and to the much greater uncertainty of their educational value. 
Under present conditions of utterly inadequate supervision, it is certain that many of 
the schools are educationally futile. Their potential value to the Protectorate should, 
however, not be overlooked. Under the effective system of visiting teachers now 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 155 


being adopted in other Colonies, these little schools could become very valuable 
centers of educational influence for health, better cultivation of the soil, industrial 
skill, improved homes and character development. 


GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION 


Until quite recently, the education of the Natives was entirely carried on by mis- 
sionary societies. A few years ago the Government appointed an Advisory Committee 
on Education to assist the Governor in the formulation of an educational policy. 
Grants-in-aid have been made to mission schools for several years. The estimates 
for education in 1924 amounted to £20,839, as against £14,680 in the previous year. 
The grants to missionary socicties are £10,346 ; to Makerere College £9,793 and to the 
Kampala Indian school £500. 


Makerere College 


Work on Makerere College was begun in 1921, in order to train Natives for adminis- 
trative service and work under various government departments. The institution 
was opened in 1922 with 14 students who received technical instruction. As a result 
of a study of Uganda schools by the Chief Inspector of Schools for the Sudan, it was 
decided to appoint a Director of Education and to formulate a new educational policy 
for the Protectorate. The general features of this policy provide for the establish- 
ment of a training center at Makerere to give higher and specialized education. 
The policy furthermore suggests plans for the improvement of the elementary and 
intermediate schools and for the employment of visiting teachers to guide and direct 
the activities of the out-schools. In view of the importance of the Makerere School 
to the whole system of the Protectorate, the following statement is presented to 
indicate the purpose, scope and organization of the institution : 


The purpose and scope of the institution at Makerere are : 


1. To provide educational opportunities above those offered by the various church schools of 
Uganda. 

2. To educate visiting teachers for the small rural schools. 

8. To train various types of Native assistants required by Government and economic organiza- 
tions, such as (a) Medical assistants ; (b) Surveyors ; (c) Commercial assistants, including clerks, 
telegraphers and bookkeepers. 

4, To train carpenters, mechanics and gardeners. 


The organization required to realize the purposes outlined is: 

(1.) General courses of instruction, including the English language ; History and Civics; the 
elements of Chemistry, Physics and Biology; Physiology and Hygiene. These general courses 
are especially adapted to meet the needs of students who are seeking more general education or 
preparing for advanced professional studies such as medicine, engineering, agriculture, law or 
theology. Selected courses will be required by those preparing to be visiting teachers, government 
and commercial assistants, agricultural and mechanical workers, In these selected subjects the 
students from some or all departments of the school may unite under one instructor. 

(2.) The education of the visiting teachers will require a carefully arranged schedule of study 
and practice, based very directly on the needs of the small rural schools. These needs include a 
simple but real knowledge of hygiene, soil cultivation, animal husbandry, village industry, healthful 


156 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


recreation and care of the home. Even though the Makerere grounds are not adapted to large 
agricultural operations, they are sufficient for the smaller activities required by supervising teachers. 

(3.) Special instruction and practice adapted to each of the special types of assistants. 

(a) Medical assistants will have access to laboratories and hospital. 
(b) Surveyors will have definite relation with government departments. 
(c) Commercial assistants will have practice in clerical activities. 

(4.) The training of carpenters, blacksmiths, motor repairers and gardeners is included in the 
organization proposed, because the institution, under pressure of local demands, has already 
arranged for this training. The provision is probably justified : 

First, by the insistent demand for this type of worker ; 
Second, by the ability of the school to provide the training not only without limiting other 
activities, but possibly to the advantage of the work as a whole. 


For the present this department is necessarily lower in standards of academic admission, and is 
known as the ‘lower school.” It is probable that in the near future the “ higher school” will 
provide advanced courses in engineering and mechanics for those who desire more than the practical 
and elementary knowledge. Advanced agriculture will require another school located in an area 
with more ground and better soil. 


Cuurcnu MISSIONARY SOCIETY 


The history and development of the C.M.S. in Uganda is inextricably intertwined 
with the origin and progress of the Protectorate. The distribution of the schools 
throughout the country has been described. Namirembe Hill overlooking Kampala 
assembles a variety of institutions that are unique in character and remarkable in 
their influence. They deal with education, religion, and withhealth. The center of all 
the institutions is the beautiful cathedral. The Hospital and the Lady Coryndon 
Maternity School are known throughout East Africa. There are various grades of 
schools for boys and girls. The boarding school for boys is notable in its provision 
of simple instruction and practice relating to dairying and poultry raising. 

The membership of the C.M.S. churches and schools is said to include a large 
proportion of the ruling and important Native families. The former pupils of King’s 
School at Budo occupy a large number of important positions, such as British 
Government servants, 66 ; Native Government, 33 ; county chiefs, 7 ; district chiefs, 
32; sub-chiefs, 8; schoolmasters, 71; with European or Indian traders, 41. 

The teaching staff of the Mission includes about 50 European missionaries, 
qualified to teach and giving full-time work, withalarge number of others doing part- 
time work in teaching and supervision. The Native teachers of various grades 
number about 900. The main educational institutions of the C.M.S. are at Budo, 
Mukono and Gayaza, all situated near Kampala. Next in importance are the central 
stations of the four Provinces. The so-called ‘“‘ central schools,” about 30 in number, 
differ widely in the quality of their work. They seldom extend above the lower 
elementary grade. 


King’s School, Budo 


This institution, situated about ten miles from Kampala, is for the general 
education of boys. Its staff nominally includes two Europeans and four or 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 157 


five Native teachers. The subjects taught are the Bible, arithmetic, geography, 
history, English, hygiene and manual training. Typewriting and printing are 
taught to a few boys. The buildings and general arrangement of grounds are attrac- 
tive. The spirit of the school is good. The institution has developed standards of 
behavior and traditions of loyalty that are effective in their influence on the 
character of the students. Even without the necessary facilities for effective training 
in teaching, the school has produced some of the best teachers in Uganda. It is hoped 
that the new educational plans of both C.M.S. and Government will enable Budo to 
relate its instruction and training more nearly to the needs of the people. It should be 
possible to preserve the best traditions of the institution, to raise the standards of 
instruction as the lower schools improve, and to train teachers who shall be the 
leavening influences for a service related to the health, the agriculture, the industry, 
the home and the character of the people. 


Training Institution at Mukono 


This school, known as the Bishop Tucker Memorial College, is directly concerned 
with the training of teachers and Native clergy. It has nominally a staff of two 
Kuropeans and four or five Native teachers. The main building now being finished 
is well planned and substantial. Its construction has been used for the training of 
some of the pupils in industrial skill. The principle and methods of the school are 
related to the training of Native teachers in the essentials of community life. Limita- 
tions of staff and equipment have prevented the complete realization of these ideals, 
but a good beginning has been made. With increased funds, equipment and staff, 
the institution could be made an effective center for the training of visiting teachers 
to help to supervise and reconstruct the out-schools. 


Girls’ School at Gayaza 


This is an excellent school for the education of Native girls of high social standing. 
The two European women and their Native assistants have been able to combine the 
best elements of school and home for the training of girls. The buildings, grounds, 
flower gardens and vegetable plots, all contribute to the cultivation of a regard for the 
beautiful and the useful. The curriculum includes the three R’s, sewing and hand- 
craft. While the purpose of the school has been the general education of girls, some 
of them have entered health service and some have become teachers. With such a 
foundation of character and ability as this school gives, it is most desirable that it 
shal! be assisted to contribute more directly to the preparation of the best type of 
woman teacher. It should be possible to arrange the organization so as both to 
continue the present influence and spirit and to include training more directly related 
to teaching and health service. 


The distribution and character of the provincial schools throughout the Protec- 
torate is shown in the following statement based on an able report prepared by 
Dr. Garfield Williams, a member of the Commission : 


158 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


In the Buganda Province, the Church Missionary Society has some 17 central schools and over 
330 sub-standard schools. In Kampala, the Mengo High School for boys is a boarding school 
organized on admirable lines. It meets the needs of a large part of the Province. Its curriculum 
and work are well adapted to the needs of the people ; agricultural education is stressed ; the boys 
take part in all kinds of farm operations, the care of cattle and poultry being given special attention. 
The Boy Scout Movement has taken root. The school is, however, so placed as to lack space for the 
extension of its activities. In Kampala there is also a central school under a Muganda clergyman, 
where good work is done, although the number of boys is much too large for the accommodation, 

In the districts north, south, east and west of Kampala, lack of supervision and the defects 
consequent on incompetent teaching are reported as seriously minimizing the value of the work 
both in central and sub-standard schools. Resident missionaries competent to give supervision 
have their time too fully employed in other work. At one center the man who was admirably managing 
a central schoo! found himself unable to supervise and inspect 81 sub-standard schools in the neigh- 
borhood. Heroic efforts have been made in many instances by missionaries and by the Native 
teachers. The latter, many of whom are uneducated and underpaid, are often men with a sense of 
vocation who even without proper supervision have done good work under extraordinarily difficult 
circumstances. But the chief impression created by the schools scattered, often in inaccessible places, 
over the huge area of the Buganda Province, was that of an immense opportunity not being taken 
because of the inadequacy of the staff. With the addition of only two qualified men missionaries, 
whose sole duty it would be to supervise these schools, an immense increase of efficiency would be 
obtained. 

For the education of girls in the Buganda Province there is, in addition to the central institution 

_at Gayaza, a girls’ boarding school at Ndeji, where educational work is well adapted to the life of 
women in Africa. Native games and Native expression of human instincts and emotions have been 
recognized and used under direction. The girls’ day school in Kampala, now rapidly improving, 
is one of several schools under European supervision in the Province. Almost all the rest of the 
girls’ education in Buganda is given in coeducational sub-standard schools which are gravely defective 
in the matter of supervision. 

The Western Province includes the two kingdoms of Ankole and Toro, In Ankole, the educa- 
tional headquarters of the mission are at the Native capital Mbarara. Here there are a boys’ 
boarding school, a central school and in the surrounding districts some 80 sub-standard schools. 
The sub-standard schools in this area are probably more often visited than those in most areas in 
Uganda, because the missionary who has been stationed there for many years likes to get out into his 
district and finds time to do so. But when he is on furlough and his missionary colleague has to 
take over all the work in the kingdom, ecclesiastical and educational, there can be no possibility 
of any adequate supervision. For girls good work is being done. At Kabale in Kigesi district 
there are both boys’ and girls’ boarding schools, and a number of sub-standard schools. The disad- 
vantage of having the boarding schools so close to the hospital, where a large number of septic and 
infectious diseases are treated, is in part counterbalanced by the interest taken by the men doctors 
in the educational work. 

In the kingdom of Toro the education of girls is more effective than that provided for boys. 
The staff of the admirable school at Kabazole do a considerable amount of inspection in the girls’ 
schools in the district. Education as a whole is not popular in Toro, unlike other parts of Uganda. 

The Northern Province has about 20 sub-standard schools and more advanced schools at Hoima 
and Masindi. The former has a boys’ central school and well-organized girls’ boarding and day schools. 
At Masindithere is a girls’ day school and a boys’ central school with a branch developing on industrial 
lines, This is one of the few places in the Protectorate where the Church Missionary Society, whose 
early hold on Uganda was at one time so dependent on the engineering knowledge of Alexander 
Mackay, has found place for technical training. Some effective emphasis is already being laid in 
Bunyoro on the community side of school education both for boys and girls. 

The Eastern Province, the great cotton growing area, has had an unusual development of mission 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 159 


work and education within the last few years. Busoga, which abuts on the kingdom of Buganda, 
shares its problems, which differ from those of the rest of the Eastern Province. Busoga has two 
educational centers—namely, Kamuli, with a good boarding school for boys and a central school ; 
Iganga, also with a boys’ central school and a first-rate girls’ boarding school. The climate of Busoga 
is so unhealthy that continuity of work is difficult. Itis impossible for the inadequate missionary 
staff to supervise even the central schools. The girls’ school at Iganga is a particularly good 
piece of work. 

The five areas of Lango, Teso, Bugweri, Bugishu and Budama are of the first importance for the 
future both of Church and State in Uganda. In the Eastern Province there are about 14 million 
people ; a system of churches and schools has been organized throughout ; languages have been 
reduced to writing and people are coming into the Church and filling the schools literally by the 
thousand. The chief educational centers at present are Nabumale and Ngora. In Ngora there is a 
boys’ boarding school in which special attention is being paid to agriculture, and also a central 
school. In Nabumale, which has excellent boarding and central schools, village industries are being 
markedly stimulated. Both schools are surrounded by numbers of sub-standard schools. There are 
between 300 and 400 in the Nabumale area alone. 

In this area there is but one man to conduct the boarding school, two central schools and a host 
of out-schools. As Archdeacon of the Eastern Province he has the ecclesiastical supervision of a 
vastly larger area, The task seemed hopeless and the educational work might have been in a chaotic 
condition. But this was far from being the case. The missionary in question is a brilliant adminis- 
trator ; he has created such intense enthusiasm among his subordinates and organized his educational 
system on such sound lines, that these schools must be regarded as some of the most remarkable 
achievements in Uganda to-day. It is not too much to say that the influence of the community 
ideals lived out in the schools both at Nabumale and Ngora is being felt throughout the Province. 

Such a statement makes a powerful plea for adequate reinforcements and government support, 
so that the work so brilliantly begun may be completed. Girls’ work, closely related to village 
life and industry and with special attention to weaving, has been begun both at Ngora and Nabumale. 


The Mengo Hospital. 


One of the noblest records of work in the whole of East Africa for the benefit of 
the community is that of the C.M.S. Hospital in Mengo, where Dr. Albert R. Cook 
and his wife devote themselves to the welfare of the people. The Hospital at Mengo, 
opened in 1897, was the pioneer in medical work in the Protectorate. It has ever 
since held the lead in introducing vaccination for smallpox, notifying the first case 
of sleeping sickness and initiating the battle between science and disease. 
It has vigorous daughter hospitals in Toro (1903), Kigesi (1920) and Ngora in the 
Eastern Province (1922), besides numerous dispensaries. The Hospital has also done 
pioneer work in the medical education of the Native, which was systematically begun 
in 1917, and has recently added to the training of Native assistants a large maternity 
training school, built in 1920-21, for Native midwives. 

The outstanding features of this great work have been the spirit of adventure 
which has continually led into new fields and the spirit of cooperation. The 
Hospital suspended its own medical training course in order to cooperate with the 
government scheme started in 1923; its staff took active part in the government 
campaign throughout the country against venereal diseases; and now there is a 
clearly established relationship in which the Government look to the C.M.S. to 
continue their four hospitals in the Protectorate, and leave to them and to the Roman 


160 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Catholic Missions the support of a network of maternity and child-welfare centers 
throughout the country and the training of workers for them. 

The central institution, the Lady Coryndon Maternity Training School, is doing, 
under the direction of Mrs. Albert Cook, a splendid work in the training of Native 
women as midwives. Twenty-four students have already passed the examination 
of the Central Midwives Board for the Protectorate and three have received the 
higher honour of the Diploma of Midwifery. In view of the terrible infant mortality 
in Uganda, caused by ignorance, dirt, and venereal diseases, the contribution made by 
such medical work to the welfare of the Protectorate is incalculable. In his plans 
for further expansion Dr. Cook gives large place to the importance of training teachers 
in sanitation and hygiene who could instruct the tens of thousands of pupils in the 
mission schools. The C.M.S. is proposing to set apart a fully qualified doctor to take 
charge of this work. 


Mitt Hitt Misston 


This important Mission maintains many schools in the Buganda and Eastern 
Provinces. The headquarters in Kampala include a number of well-managed insti- 
tutions, the most important of which are St. Peter’s School for Boys, a High School 
and a Maternity Training School. The other institutions with a general responsibility 
are the Nazigo Normal School, St. Agnes’ Boarding School for Girls, St. Aloisius’ 
Boarding School for Boys, and the Baluba Technical School. The Bishop, with 69 
Fathers, 17 Sisters and 16 Native teachers, has a general supervision of the educational 
work. The training of Native girls for health service and religious ministration is 
especially well done. The mission has twenty-five ‘‘ Central ”’ schools with a reported 
enrollment of 7,500. These schools are taught by Native teachers and are supervised 
by Europeans. There are three schools for small children in missions under the 
direction of Sisters. The government Blue Book for 1922 reported about 700 out- 
schools with an enrollment of about 80,000. Many of the out-schools are catechetical 
centers with comparatively little educational work. According to the Bishop, these 
schools are chiefly for the teaching of the lowest elements of the three R’s and the 
reading of the Bible. Itis to be hoped that the plan of employing visiting teachers 
may be adopted to relate these little centers to health, gardening and the simple 
needs of the people. 


Tue Wartre FatHers’ Mission 


The schools of the White Fathers are situated in Buganda and in the Western and 
Northern Provinces. Fully two-thirds of the pupils are in Buganda. St. Mary’s 
School for Boys, the highest institution for general education in the Mission, is 
situated at the Kampala headquarters, with other interesting educational activities. 
These headquarters are on a hill commanding a view both of the town and of the 
extensive buildings of the C.M.S. and of the Mill Hill Fathers, on heights not far away. 
An impressive Cathedral, of simple, dignified architecture, is now being completed. 
St. Mary’s School, under the direction of two Fathers and one Native teacher, pro- 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 161 


vides instruction in English, the three R’s and general preparation for clerical work. 
There is also a special class for telegraphists with a Native teacher paid by the Govern- 
ment. A normal school for men teachers offers a two years’ course under the direction 
of one European missionary, one Native priest and one Native teacher. Another 
normal school for female teachers has a two years’ course under the direction of two 
Kuropean Sisters. The three hi gh schools have a course of three years in English, 
arithmetic and geography. The teaching staff in each is one European missionary 
and two Native teachers. The Kisubi Technical School, under the direction of 
missionary lay brothers, provides a four years’ course in carpentry, wheelwrighting, 
smithing and bootmaking. There are also many little out-schools with a reported 
attendance of about 16,000 pupils and doubtless many more catechetical centers. In 
addition to the schools concerned with general education either throughout the Colony 
or in their locality, there are two seminaries for training Native clergy. The Little 
Seminary at Bukalasa is preparatory to the Grand Seminary at Katigondo. 


The Little Seminary at Bukalasa 
The following notes by the Father in charge of the preparatory classical seminary 
present a course strangely in contrast with other education in Africa : 

The staff of this Seminary includes five White Fathers and two Native teachers, ‘The 
students have, accordingly, to receive a double preparation of science and of will. The science 
to be acquired is, of course, mostly of a clerical nature, Latin being foremost. But, as will be seen, 
other sciences are not neglected. The sixth form (first year) is the foundation stone. The students 
do not begin Latin, but are taught, in the vernacular, grammar, arithmetic, geography, history. 
They learn to reflect and to think by parsing and analysis, Teaching of Latin includes Morphology 
(fifth form), Syntaxis of words (fourth form), Syntaxis of sentences (third form), Revision of the 
whole grammar (sixth form), Rhetoric (first form), with numberless exercises. Manual training and 
athletics are provided every day. 


Grand Seminary at Katigondo 


This school offers a course of nine years, including two years of probation previous 
to ordination to the subdiaconate. The teachers are four White Fathers, The 
instruction is largely in Latin and includes the usual subjects of a theological educa- 
tion. The following comment by a visitor to the Seminary reflects both on the content 
and the results of the education imparted : 

When, at the invitation of the White Father in charge of the class, the visitors asked the pupils 
what they knew of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the 14 boys who held up their hands gave in fluent 
Latin and without any trace of hesitation a perfect history of the saint’s life, his work and the influence 
this had on the Church. The teaching of manners is a subject of instruction in the curriculum, and 
indeed the way in which the boys behaved in their classes and treated the visitors was in no way 
different from the perfect manners shown, for example, by the monks of the Certosa. 


The following facts were obtained from the Pri neipal of St. Mary’s College : 


The number of Europeans employed in education is five on the general and inspecting staff 
and 56 teachers and instructors, In the Elementary and Primary Schools only the vernacular is 
used. In the higher schools Luganda, English and Latin are used as languages of instruction. ‘The 
Society has its own printing press, where a monthly magazine is printed in Luganda. Amongst the 
books published and printed by the Society in Luganda area Luganda-Latin Dictionary, a Luganda 


162 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Latin grammar and exercises, a history of the Baganda martyrs, and books of geography, arithmetic, 
science and history. The Mission was founded by Archbishop C. M. Lavigerie in 1868 as the Society 
of the Missionaries of Africa. Most of the Fathers employed in education have been working in 
Uganda for a great many years and have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Native. 


Ill. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


Uganda Protectorate, with an unusually high average fertility of the soil and a 
favorable climate, with its unusual type of Native population, distributed uniformly 
and in fairly satisfactory numbers throughout the territory, its remarkable system 
of mission education and its rapid agricultural development, especially in cotton 
raising, requires the immediate reorganization of Native education, not only to avoid 
a crisis in Native affairs, but much more to take advantage of the striking oppor- 
tunities presented to the Protectorate and its people. It seems probable that the 
redirection of existing education would have more immediate and more extensive 
results in Uganda than in any African colony, with the possible exception of the 
Gold Coast. Hitherto Native development has been so natural as to eliminate the 
possibilities of racial frictions prevalent in some other Colonies. Government, 
missions and economic conditions have consciously or unconsciously moved along 
lines that were in the main sound and helpful. They have undoubtedly been for- 
tunate in the absence of temptations to commit errors that have created difficulties 
elsewhere. Credit must be given to the early government officials, who organized 
administration with due regard for Native opinion. This was, of course, partly if not 
largely owing to the strong type of Native government already in the Protectorate. 
Inaccessibility from the sea retarded the too rapid entrance of European influences. 
Probably the most continuous and potent force of all has been the early and constant 
interest of the large missionary societies working in the Protectorate. From the 
first settlement to the present day the representatives of these missions have been 
constantly on their guard to eliminate unfair influences and to encourage and guide 
kindly forces. 

While the missionary societies have made remarkable use of the available funds and 
staff for the education of the people, they have been seriously hampered by meager 
financial resources. They have also failed to relate their educational activities to 
the community needs of the people. The type of education has been too exclusively 
literary. In a country with unusually fertile soil they have made practically no 
provision for agricultural education. This vital responsibility, so fundamental to 
the welfare of the people, has been left to the chance interest of the missionary in 
charge and to the necessity of producing food for the missions. One of the present 
missionaries, with a vision of the relation of soil to soul, has introduced an interest 
in both the land and domestic animals into his school under circumstances that 
seemed insurmountable. First of these was the location of the school in an urban 
area with practically no land. The second was an educational and an ecclesiastical 
environment quite indifferent to the cultural value of agriculture. This man states 
the ease for the soil in the following significant words : 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 163 


The soil of this land is a veritable gold mine from which, by the cooperation of Church and State, 
a new African society might be dug, which could withstand nobly all that is bad and absorb all that 
is good in our western civilization. . . . There will be a large number of chiefs’ sons who possess, 
through their fathers, land of their own, which they could be encouraged to develop on leaving 
school, and so automatically lift up the whole of the village life around them. If during one year 
fifty chiefs’ sons left the nine intermediate schools with no great leanings towards learning but with 
some sort of vision and knowledge of what they could do with 100 and 200 acres of land, it requires 
little vision to see that in the course of five or ten years the whole country would be lifted to a higher 
level. This type of education for the sons of chiefs will not only supplement village education, 
but in many districts be the source from which it will flow strongly. 


An officer of the Church Missionary Society expresses his great disappointment 
in that his Society failed to follow the inspiring example and the substantial beginning 
in industrial training made by the famous engineer missionary, Alexander Mackay. 
Probably in the history of no great missionary endeavor has there been such an 
interest shown in technical pursuits at the very inception of the Mission as was 
the case in Uganda. This was, of course, due to the heroic life and work of the engi- 
neer, Alexander Mackay, who may almost be said to be the patron saint of Protestant 
missions in Uganda. It would probably be true to say that Mackay was only per- 
mitted to remain in Uganda, in the early days when the missionaries and the handful 
of Native Christians who then existed were bitterly persecuted, because his engineering 
knowledge was useful to the Native king. It is fitting that the technical institute 
at the King’s School, Budo, should be named after Mackay. Because of these 
beginnings it is sad that the technical work of the C.MLS. in Uganda seems rather to 
have fallen on evil days. There was a mistaken policy in the past when a quite 
promising mission technical school was handed over to the control of a commercial 
undertaking in Uganda which seemed at the time better fitted to control it. Unfortu- 
nately a great deal of the training of the Africans was then handed over by the new 
authority to Indian workmen, and it is suggested that these Indians had no intention 
of giving such training to the African lest it should prepare a way for the ousting of 
themselves and their compatriots by trained Africans. 

Another subject neglected in the school program is that of hygiene and 
health. Missions are maintaining hospitals and insisting upon standards of cleanliness 
that have a decided influence for health. Only a few schools, however, give adequate 
place to the subject in the curriculum. The omission causes the pupils to minimize 
the importance of hygiene, and even to discredit the unconscious influence of European 
methods of sanitation. A striking example of the omission of this important subject, 
as well as of the ease with which the subject could be introduced, is in the case of an 
excellent school for Native women which failed to give any instruction in the care 
of children, even though the school was located within a few miles of an effective 
maternity training school, whose principal would have been glad to furnish the 
necessary instruction. Fortunately, these omissions are being recognized by the 
officers of the missionary societies, as the following brilliant plea by one of their 
number indicates : 


The weakness which has already been indicated in regard to the curriculum used in sub-standard 


164 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


schoolsis also manifested in the curriculum ofthe training institutions. Far too little emphasis is placed 
upon hygiene and simple agriculture and animal husbandry, and it seems a grave defect that there 
is almost a complete absence of nature study and the simplest background of science, which should 
find a place in any foundation work in education, more especially among primitive peoples, for the 
influences of nature and of the ordinary happenings of everyday life have been, in the past, among 
the most potent influences in the education of the Native. 

One of the easiest ways of continuing and developing this education is to utilize these same 
natural processes as the avenue through which new ideas and new knowledge may be brought to him. 
To use the word “ science ” for this kind of knowledge brings up into the mind of the western educator 
a whole set of western ideas which make it appear a ridiculous subject for a curriculum in sub-standard 
schools among primitive peoples, but this is simply because we, in the past, have made science an 
almost hopelessly academic subject. In point of fact a very primitive type of science is almost the 
first educative influence that is brought to bear upon child races, and if only we could develop the 
subject sufficiently slowly and simply we could still make it of immense educative value to them, 
even in the simplest possible type of school. 

The method has yet to be worked out, and the place to work it out is surely in the teachers’ 
training institutions and their practising schools. So when we speak of the need of more teaching of 
hygiene and agriculture and animal husbandry, behind all of it we are thinking of the educative 
value of the simplest possible scientific knowledge which may be conceived of as the necessary 
educational foundation upon which to build up an appropriate teaching of these subjects. 

It may be added that, even from a purely religious point of view, seeing that one of the greatest 
stumbling blocks to true religion which exists in the Native mind is the tradition which he possesses 
of age-long superstitions about nature and natural processes, simple teaching indicating to him the 
working out in nature of eternal law may help him almost more than anything else to get rid of many 
of the wrong conceptions that he has concerning the character and apparently haphazard manifesta- 
tions of the Power that lies behind the natural happenings that so constantly affect his life. 


The mere mention of the hundreds of out-schools reported by all of the missions 
immediately suggests the question of supervision and administration. Comparison 
of these hundreds of schools, scattered over extensive areas, with the almost negligible 
numbers of European teachers and supervisors, proves conclusively the dangerous 
lack of supervision. The emphatic presentation of this lack by Dr. Garfield Williams 
is most impressive : 


Government Inspection.—1t is in the inspection and administration of schools that the greatest 
defects in the educational system in Uganda are most manifested. In the first place there is no 
government Department of Education and no government inspecting staff, This is so serious a 
defect as to be in itself almost sufficient to account for much of the weakness in Uganda education. 

Every missionary who is engaged in education work would welcome the inspection of government 
inspectors. It is immensely to the missionary’s advantage to have outside inspection. Apart from 
anything else, it often results in a powerful reinforcement of his own inspection, Naturally he, in his 
inspection, may be thought to have motives ulterior to education. Especially is this true of the Native 
inspector who is very closely associated with the spiritual work of the Church as well as with its 
educational activities. It is an immense strength to the missionary educationalist to be able to turn to 
the report of the government inspector when necessary reforms are contemplated but are held up by 
the apathy orignorance of those whose sympathies he must win if improvement is to be brought about. 

Mission Inspection—Quite apart from the obvious weaknesses resulting from the absence of 
government inspection, there are many others resulting from the absence of proper mission inspection 
and for which the missionary societies are to blame. By a mere enumeration of the missionaries 
at work and the work they have each to do, it has been proved without a shadow of doubt that 
missionaries are not undertaking and cannot undertake the work of inspection of schools in any way 


PLATE eXexT 


git oye ae sg rhe 


, ib ete faerie 





IN TANGANYIKA (1) 


(a) Government School at Tanga: Parent-Teachers’ Meeting ; (b) Government School at 
Shinyanga ; (c) Village Out- school beyond Korogwe ; (d) Visiting Mission Out-schools, 
Usambara, 


PLATE XXII 


‘sKog voseyor, (9) 
- § SUIBYLIL ‘LOOYS 9Y} JO MoIA [BLOUIT) (q) } ouIBYRy_ “OSNOF_T UOISSTAL Sizditaryq caus1oj ayy, (Y) 
(Z) VHIANVONVIL NI 





THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 165 


approaching adequacy, But cannot much be done by Native clergy and higher grade schoolmasters ? 
Higher grade Native teachers can be ruled out at once. They have institutions of their own to look 
after which should take up all their available time. What of the possible inspection by clergy ? 
After all, most of these little sub-standard schools are on Sundays used as churches. Many of the 
teachers at work in these schools are, on Sundays, taking religious services, and there are Native rural 
deans and other Native clergy whose business it is to supervise these schools, often simply because 
they are churches ; and to supervise their teachers, often simply because their teachers are also 
preachers, But a moment’s thought will show that it is just because of this that the control of sub- 
standard education by rural deans and Native pastors absolutely breaks down. Probably the 
greatest mistake in the whole Uganda system is that the control of the little schools is vested in the 
same people who controlthe churches. Not that the system is necessarily wrong in itself, but that these 
rural deans and pastors have no time for the proper inspection and administration of the sub-standard 
school system. Nor have they the qualifications for this work and probably do not pretend to have 
them. Quite naturally and rightly, the thing that interests them when they come to these little sub- 
standard schools is the character of the preparation for baptism or for confirmation that is taking 
place. Inevitably the whole education system is subordinated to the ecclesiastical system. 

It is suggested that, with the present numbers of educated Natives available, the amalgamation 
of the two tasks is an absolute impossibility, and that if one task goes, quite obviously it will be the 
task of educational inspection and administration. The net result is that numbers of the sub- 
standard schools in Uganda never have any effective inspection as educational institutions, and that 
there may well be hundreds of boys and girls being educated in these schools who are capable of 
profiting by the better education given in the central schools, but who never have a chance of getting 
to them. It is certainly a fact that large numbers of sub-standard school teachers are losing their 
enthusiasm and decreasing in capacity as teachers because they are left absolutely isolated, and 
never given a modicum of such assistance as might be given if only those who knew a little more 
than they did of the methods of teaching could be given time to help them in their work. 

The Central Schools.—The inspection and administration of many of the central schools is uns 
fortunately very little better. I do not think that it is fair to leave the Native teacher, less than a 
generation removed from paganism, at the mercy of every kind of temptation to slackness and even 
immorality. One felt, moreover, that the actual conditions in which boys were living who attended 
these central schools, which are incipient boarding schools and which have no proper arrangements 
made for the supervision of the boys in out-of-school hours, could not possibly have been left wholly 
unremedied had there been proper inspection and administration of these central schools. The 
argument that the home influences of the boys are even worse than the influences at work upon them 
in their temporary homes near the central schools seemed to me to be a pitiful sort of excuse for lack 
of better arrangements and supervision. 

Boarding Schools.—Much might also be said in criticism of some of the boarding schools. There 
has been a lamentable lack of continuity in the administration of these boarding schools, due, of 
course, like almost everything else, to lack of European staff. But lack of European staff is not 
sufficient excuse. If there is not sufficient staff, nor any prospect of getting sufficient staff, the 
numbers of these schools must be permanently decreased. It may be taken as axiomatic that 
improperly supervised boarding schools are hotbeds of vice and immorality. It is also, certainly 
in Africa and the East, true that a well organized and properly administered boarding school is far 
and away the mosi effective type of institution both for the morals and for the general education of 
those who attend it. 

Girls’ Schools.—These criticisms apply almost wholly to boys’ education, except in so far as we 
are dealing with coeducational sub-standard village schools. On the whole, the girls’ education 
is far more effectively staffed and administered. Some of the girls’ schools are remarkably fine 
institutions, and very seldom has one come across a girls’ school where supervision was seriously 
lax. On the whole, moreover, the standard of educational attainment on the part of the women 
missionaries engaged in educational work is high. There are one or two exceptions, where mission- 

G 


166 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


aries, incompetent for education work, have been sent to fill gaps, but, on the whole, it is difficult 
to give anything but praise to the women’s education work. A very small increase in their personnel 
would help them to put the girls’ education of Uganda on to a very high level of efficiency. We 
believe, however, that much more could be done in Uganda by women missionary inspectors of 
sub-standard schools. We would certainly like to see the experiment tried of putting the coeduca- 
tional sub-standard schools in certain large areas definitely under the administration of women 
missionaries. 

Statistics of both missions and Government show the concentration of schools and 
other facilities in Buganda and especially at Kampala, its capital. Recent develop- 
ments in the Eastern Province point to the danger of centering institutions and 
influences so largely at Kampala to the neglect of both the actual and potential 
developments in the Eastern Province. The relative importance of these two Pro- 
vinces in the formulation of policies is wisely discussed in the following quotation : 

The Kingdom of Buganda is at present the center of everything in the Protectorate, and all 
roads lead to Kampala, its capital, so that it is at present impossible to get anywhere in Uganda 
with any ease, except from Kampala or by roads radiating from that city. It should also be pointed 
out that Kampala is not merely the center of communications, it is also the intellectual center of 
the whole Protectorate. This centrality of Kampala will not, however, continue indefinitely, for 
the extension of the Uganda railway from the Highlands of Kenya by way of Eldoret and Tororo 
into Eastern Uganda seems bound, in a measure, to shift the center to, or to create a second center 
in, Eastern Uganda. This is likely to be aided by the character of the Natives in the eastern districts, 
as well as by the economic development of the great cotton-growing areas which they occupy. It 


will probably not be long before Mbale or Tororo or some other center near Mount Elgon becomes 
as important a place as Kampala. 


In view of the important educational problems in Uganda, it is most fortunate 
that Government and missions are equally interested in the redirection of much of 
the education hitherto given, as well as in the reorganization of the school system. 
The following recommendations are proposed for the consideration of those concerned 
with the improvement of the educational activities in the Protectorate : 

1. The decision of the Government to appoint a Director of Education is almost 
a guarantee that all needed changes will in the course of time be realized. The 
Director will, of course, make a careful and sympathetic survey of the existing organi- 
zations and their methods. His policies will doubtless be formulated with full regard 
for the achievements and possibilities of the schools throughout the Protectorate. 
His Department will include supervisors who will become intimately acquainted 
with the school system and especially the little out-schools, even though they may 
be far removed from the larger centers. 

2. The Advisory Board on Native Education, appointed some years ago, should 
represent Government, missionaries, settlers and the Native people. This com- 
mittee will bring to the Government the varied experiences of organizations that have 
had almost complete responsibility for education since the beginning of the Pro- 
tectorate. Only Nyasaland can equal Uganda in the extent to which missions have 
been responsible for Native schools. The representation of the Native people 
is required by their vital interest, the advanced position of the Native Government 
and their large financial contribution in addition to what they give through taxation. 


THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE 167 


While settlers and traders are comparatively few in number, their responsibilities 
and their experience will contribute vitally to educational policy. 

3. Increased financial support of education is essential to any effective policy. 
The contribution to mission schools should not be regarded as in competition with 
appropriations to the government schools. Missions will expect only the financial 
aid which they can effectively use for the education of the people. The Department 
of Education and the Advisory Board would guarantee the best use of such appro- 
priations. Grants-in-aid should be strictly conditioned by the quality and quantity 
of work done. The broad interpretation of education to include influences for the 
improvement of health, agriculture, industrial skill, home conditions and community 
morals and morale should constitute an appeal for funds that may well be supported 
by the other government Departments interested in such improvements. The 
rapidly increasing prosperity of the Protectorate will doubtless make possible appro- 
priations sufficiently large to enable both Government and missions to maintain 
the schools which each can best administer. It is obvious that economy as well as 
efficiency require that Government shall only maintain schools where it can organize 
and direct them more effectively than existing mission organizations. 

4. There is probably no British Colony in Africa more immediately in need of 
educational supervision than Uganda. This need has been presented both clearly 
and emphatically by an officer of one of the mission societies. Methods of supervision 
have been explained at length in the chapter on Educational Administration. It is 
especially important that Government shall not only maintain its own supervision, 
but also assist the supervisory work of mission societies and especially their efforts to 
prepare and maintain Native visiting teachers of the type now receiving favorable 
consideration in other colonies. 

5. The chaotic condition of educational organization in Uganda is quite equal 
to the inadequacy of supervision. The terms “ High” and “ Central,” as used to 
describe schools in Uganda, give an entirely erroneous conception of their standard 
and work. Both are lower elementary schools, with differences known only to a 
few people in Uganda. While there is much confusion, both as to terminology 
and standards, observation reveals different types that could with comparative 
ease be made a part of a regularly graded system. In Part II of this chapter the 
schools of Uganda have been roughly classified Into four groups with Makerere at 
the top; the schools with more than provincial influence second; the so-called 
“ High” and “ Central” schools as the third, and the out-schools as the fourth. 
It seems clear that Makerere should be at the top of the system. To solve the con- 
fusion in the long-established schools of the Missions the following classification is 
suggested : 

(a) Schools that are central to the work of each of the three large Missions. These 
will be Budo, for the C.M.S.; St. Mary’s, for the White Fathers ; and St. Peter’s, 
for the Mill Hill Mission. These institutions will be of such a standard as to receive 
the pupils of the lower schools and prepare them either for Makerere or for the 
specialized institutions of the Missions, such as theological seminaries or the normal 


168 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


schools. They will advance their standards as the lower schools evolve their 
work. 

(b) The second grade of schools will be those of the provincial stations, with 
supervisory responsibility for their areas and with standards above those of group 
(c). ‘These institutions will usually have dormitory accommodation and be under 
European supervision. 

(c) This group of schools is represented by many of the so-called ‘‘ High” and 
“ Central” schools, which are at the present moment of the lower elementary grades. 
The high schools are usually under European supervision and the central schools are 
often only an advanced form of out-schools under Native teachers who offer some 
instruction in English. 

(d) This group includes the hundreds of little out-schools at all stages of sub- 
standard inefficiency. 

Comparison of the above analysis with the four-grade system described in the 
chapter on Educational Administration reveals the striking parallelism of the Uganda 
types to those recommended. The difficulty in Uganda is that there has not been a 
consensus of opinion to direct school activities, so that the four grades of schools 
may be integrated into a system which makes possible the promotion of pupils from 
the lower to the upper schools and also provides for the supervision of lower grade 
schools by the upper ones. It is, therefore, suggested that the Director of Education 
and the Advisory Board shall agree as to the status of these four grades of schools ; 
that orderly promotion shall be made possible from the lowest to the highest ; that 
the high and central schools shall have supervisory relationships over the out-schools 
of their community and every effort be made to improve their organization and to 
increase their number so that they may be sufficiently numerous to exercise super- 
vision ; that the provincial mission schools shall, so far as possible, supervise only 
the central schools and through them the neighboring schools. It is hoped that these 
suggestions at least make clear the approach to the perplexing problem of reorganiza- 
tion. The most fundamental provision of all is that there shall be a better propor- 
tion of upper to lower schools. At the present time the unsupervised condition of 
hundreds of out-schools threatens to discredit all Native education. 

6. The Educational Objectives and Adaptations discussed in the first chapter 
of the Report are notably lacking in the schools of Uganda. With all the wealth of 
agricultural resources in the Protectorate, there is not a single agricultural school to 
prepare the Natives to take advantage of their wealth. The few institutions that give 
any attention whatever to the subject are negligible. This extreme neglect is almost 
equalled as regards sndustrial training. The teaching of hygiene is poor and limited. 
Nature study and physical science are almost entirely neglected. Under such condi- 
tions, it is obvious that the educational content of the school curriculum should be 
radically supplemented, The courses of instruction should be rearranged from the 
highest to the lowest. 


CuapTter VII 
TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 


HE mandatory responsibilities for Tanganyika granted to the British Govern- 

ment under international sanction give to the education of the Natives a special 
importance. According to the mandate, the improvement of the country and the 
development of the Natives are the avowed aims of Government. Education, broadly 
interpreted to include training in hygiene, agricultural and industrial skill and char- 
acter development, is without doubt the most effective means for the realization of 
this great responsibility. The vast extent of cultivable land with a comparatively 
sparse population stresses the importance of an education that will make for the 
increase of the Native people through a knowledge of health and sanitation and at 
the same time enable them to make better use of the soil and other natural resources. 
The educational needs of the Territory are greater than those in any of the areas 
under British control, owing to the drastic disruptions of the great war and the con- 
sequent removal of all the German missionaries who had organized and maintained 
many effective schools in what was then German East Africa. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Tanganyika Territory, with an area of 370,000 square miles and a population of 
about 4,000,000, was assigned to the British Government in 1919 in conformity 
with Article 22, Part I, of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Belgian 
Government likewise received a mandate to administer the districts of Ruanda and 
Urundi with an area of 20,000 square miles and a population of 3,500,000. The 
great difference in the density of population of the British area with 11 to the square 
mile, as compared with the Belgian area with 175 to the square mile, has a vital sig- 
nificance in the future development of these two political units. It seems obvious 
that these areas separated by mandate are both economically and sociologically 
complementary and supplementary. Tanganyika with its vast undeveloped resources 
seems clearly the outlet for the great and vigorous population crowded into Ruanda 
and Urundi. Effective systems of education adapted to the economic and social 
welfare of the people in both British and Belgian territories will inevitably emphasize 
their interdependence. 

Tanganyika Territory, extending from 1° to 12° south latitude, has Kenya and 
Uganda to the north, Belgian territory to the west, and British and Portuguese 
territory to the south. In area it is a little larger than Nigeria, but its population 
is less than a fourth of that in Nigeria. It is three times the area of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and larger than all the Atlantic 
Coast States from New York to Florida. The 22 political districts of the Territory 
may be grouped into five geographical units as follows : 

169 


170 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


30 
UGANDA 
Ke sNeayY A 


@ (@y) te eis Ne 


ie wong 


a 


/47 KiLIMANSARS RW 
ARUSHA Ei 
wostta’. Marangy 


} 
URUND! i z SP 8 g Arusha GSS 
A . + 


£: MANYARA 


KONDOA-IRANG!I 
USUMBARA 


> 


PANGANI 


BAGAMOYO 


MOROGORO /parR-ES;z 
SALAAM 


Enouise MiLes 
50 100 150 200 





40 wernuitr 





TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 171 


1, The Northern Area, including the 5 districts touching the northern boundary, has a Native 
population of 1,385,700, an area of 77,629 square miles, and a density of 18 persons to the square 
mile. Most of the area has an altitude of from 1,600 to 4,000 ft. The districts of Moshi and Arusha 
are more than 4,000 ft. in altitude and contain the extinct volcano of Kilimanjaro, 19,720 ft., the 
highest mountain in Africa. There is much fertile land and the climate is generally healthy. 

2. The Central Area, containing the 4 districts along the railway from Dar-es-Salaam to the Lake, 
has a population of 1,144,000, an area of 100,885 square miles, and 11 persons to the square mile. 
Tabora, with almost half the total population, has an average altitude of over 4,000 ft. Owing to 
swampy areas this district is not regarded as healthy. The altitudes of the remaining districts, 
which are reasonably healthy, range from 1,600 to 4,000 ft. 

83. The Western Area borders on Lake Tanganyika and has an average altitude of over 4,000 ft. 
Its Native population is 470,300; its area 71,860 square miles; density of population, 7. Most 
of the country is healthy. 

4, The Southern Area borders on Lake Nyasa and contains the Livingstone Mountains, whose 
highest peak is over 9,000 ft. The Native population is 327,600; the area 61,573 square miles ; 
density 5 persons per square mile. The region is healthy and contains much cultivable land. 

5. The Coastal Area contains the 7 districts bordering on the ocean. The maritime plain, varying 
from 10 to 40 miles in width, extends through all these districts. They are tropical in climate and 
generally unhealthy. The Native population is 778,400; the area 61,597 square miles; density 
of population, 12. 


THE The geographical facts already presented indicate the sparsity of 
PEOPLE population. In view of the healthfulness of extensive areas throughout 

the Territory it is difficult to account for the small population. Com- 
parison of the census of 1921 with the German census of 1913 indicates a small ~ 
decrease, which is explained by the ravages of war, the high death rate resulting 
from influenza and the increase of venereal diseases. All these decreases were in 
the coastal provinces ; the inland districts show an increase in every case. The 
historical explanation of the sparse population is probably both the ravages of 
disease and the constant slave raids; to which the inland Natives have been 
subjected for centuries. The central’ plateaux have also suffered much from 
famines. Evidence of great losses from infantile mortality, which is known to be 
general among African tribes, is especially definite and convincing in the following 
facts presented in the report of the Medical Department : 


There is not a shadow of doubt that infantile mortality is appallingly high. There is evidence to 
show that it stands at somewhere near 300 per thousand. Statistics collected concerning 285 wives 
of 84 chiefs show that only 405 infants survived out of a total of 707. As the tribe had not suffered 
either pestilence or famine, and the children of the chiefs had naturally a better chance of survival 
than those of ordinary Natives, this very high death rate is especially significant, 


The principal occupation of the Native throughout the Territory, as indeed 
throughout Africa, is the cultivation of the soil. In addition to the food crops 
grown everywhere, efforts have been made for many years to encourage the Natives 
to grow such money crops as cotton and ground nuts. In 1923, 600 tons of cotton 
seed were distributed among the Natives, and instruction in planting, picking and 
grading was given to them by practica] demonstration. The year’s output amounted 
to 6,500 bales of 400 Ib, each. Owing to unfavorable weather conditions in many 


172 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


districts this was a decrease. of 11 per cent. as compared with the previous year. 
Two districts also suffered from a plague of rats which, in addition to the destruction 
of much foodstuff, destroyed nearly half the cotton crop. The results in cotton and 
in other money crops are sufficient to prove the possibility in Native production. 
The Government Report for 1922 states that “the quality of coffee raised by the 
Natives is in many cases quite equal to that raised by Europeans; the price paid for 
it by local merchants has averaged one shilling a kilo.” Trained Natives are working 
successfully under the administration of Government in the direction of agricultural 
production. 

The ownership of live stock is a more definite measure of Native occupation. 
It is reported that the Natives possess approximately 3,000,000 head of cattle, 
4,000,000 sheep and goats and 12,000 donkeys. In view of the great losses from 
rinderpest and East Coast fever, such an amount of live stock is a significant indica- 
tion of Native stock raising. A great proportion of these animals are in the Northern 
and Central Areas of the Territory. With the extension of practical education in 
farming and stock raising, it seems certain that Native production could be very 
greatly increased. 

The Director of Education has assembled some interesting facts concerning the 
‘ndustries and handicrafts of the Native people. This statement shows the number 
of tribes engaging in each handicraft and also whether it is the occupation of the men 

-or the women. The principal industries are as follows : Basket making, 21 tribes, 
both men and women ; mat making, 21 tribes, both men and women ; metal work, 
25 tribes, men; making of hoes, axes and agricultural tools, 8 tribes, men; pipe 
making, 14 tribes, men ; weaving cotton cloth, 8 tribes, men ; pottery, 16 tribes, 
men and women in 9 and women in 7; mortars and pestles, 10 tribes, men ; ebony 

_ and wood carving, 9 tribes, men. Other crafts, limited to the men of two or three 
tribes each, are silversmiths, makers of musical instruments, salt making, lime 
burning. The extent and variety of these handicrafts indicate the possibility of an 
education related to the industrial capacities of the Native people. 

The system of land tenure is of vital importance to every phase of Native develop- 
ment. Without a clear understanding as to the relationship to the land, the agri- 
cultural education of the Native is futile. In the undeveloped condition of the Terri- 
tory there are many lines of possible development. Sound policy for the training of 
the Natives cannot be determined until the lines of colonial development have been 
reasonably determined. Experience in other Colonies points to the wisdom of a 
policy that provides both for land ownership by the Native people and opportunities 
to engage as laborers on European plantations or in well-organized industries. The 
situation as regards land tenure in Tanganyika is clearly presented in the following 
quotation from the report presented to Parliament in July, 1921: 


The whole position of land in the Territory is somewhat complicated owing to the fact that it 
involves three distinct systems of tenure or ownership, which are antagonistic and mutually exclusive, 
though existing side by side, These may be described as : (1) the ancient tribal system based upon 
a communal ownership, as established over a wide area of Africa ; (2) the purely private and individual 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 173 


Arab system, whereby the original alien immigrant possessed himself of a desirable piece of land 
without consideration for the possible rights of the State or the community ; and (3) the European 
system, under which government grants of suitable properties were made to certain persons or 
companies, after, at any rate nominal, consideration of the rights of the Native community and the 
development of the country, 

Of these, the first system naturally obtains over the greatest area, though it is generally restricted 
to the less developed or desirable parts of the Territory. Working well under the former conditions 
which obtained before the African had come into contact with outside influence, it is now complicated 
by the problem introduced by modern conditions ; and this fact renders perpetual caution necessary 
if, on the one hand, Native rights are to be maintained and, on the other, due regard is to be paid 
to the adequate development of the large and often rich areas affected. 

The second or Arab system of ownership lends itself more readily to incorporation into the 
European scheme of private property in land, but it involves various complications in practice, 
the greatest being the fact that these estates were primarily intended for exploitation by slave 
labor. Once slavery ceases, the Arab owner tends to lose his powers of development, and _ his 
property falls into a neglected, unproductive state, with the inevitable result of eventual dispossession 
by the easy road of debt and mortgage. There is thus a constant danger that the former Arab 
owners (who, after all, were responsible for many useful innovations, and who did much to develop 
the Coast Area in the past) may be expropriated by European or Indian successors who will exploit 
the properties on modern commercial lines, while the Arab and his ex-slaves sink apathetically into 
a hand-to-mouth existence under conditions distinctly opposed to social progress. It is, no doubt, 
true that these lands were originally seized in utter defiance of the right of the original African 
communities ; but it is scarcely possible to revive such considerations at this stage, while the Arab 
may be said to have justified his existence to a great extent by the many improvements which he 
introduced to the general benefit of the country. 

The European system of land tenure was introduced by the late German Government, and large 
grants were made to individuals or companies, often with little or no consideration for the rights 
and requirements of the Native population, As a result, considerable unrest was aroused, and such 
action must be considered a contributory cause to the numerous Native risings with which the 
Germans had to deal. Restricted tribal lands meant a discontented and decreasing population with 
labor shortage as a result ; this entailed regulations to remedy the shortage by compulsion, with 
the inevitable outbreak as a logical conclusion. This was apparently recognized at last by the 
German administration, who were in the last few years before the war consequently growing far 
more cautious in the matter of land grants ; they appear to have been trying in certain areas to 
remedy the harm already done, their policy having become more careful and far-sighted compared 
with their original methods. It is, nevertheless, undeniable that in many cases land has been alienated 
in utter disregard of Native rights, and we are left in certain portions of the Territory with an unfor- 
tunate legacy in the shape of an overcrowded and discontented Native community on the one hand, 
and with large and valuable properties handicapped for lack of sufficient labor on the other. 


It is evident that the British authorities are fully conscious of the difficulties of 
the situation both as regards land tenure and the exploitation of labor. The 
pronouncement of the White Paper of 1921 in reference to the labor in Kenya, 
together with the ideals of the League of, Nations, are adequate guarantees that under 
British rule justice will be done to the Natives. 

It is not possible to describe the great variety of tribes and languages. The 
numerous dialects are various forms of the Bantu language. Swahili is the lingua 
franca and more generally used in Tanganyika than in any of the other East Coast 
Colonies. A number of the dialects have been reduced to writing, and elementary 
grammars and vocabularies have been compiled by missionary societies and German 

G2 


174 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


students. Officers of Government and missions interested in the education of the 
interior tribes are seriously considering the relative importance of the Native language, 
Swahili, and English, as languages of instruction in the schools. The claim of the 
local vernaculars is clear, so far as the early stages of education are concerned. The 
advantages of Swahili are obvious for trade exchange and the simpler inter-tribal 
relationships. The importance of English, or the language of the Power in control, 
is the establishment of a means of communication with Government and an acquaint- 
ance with the great literatures of civilization. The great masses of the Natives of 
Tanganyika have their own animistic beliefs and superstitions. Mohammedanism is 
largely limited to the coast towns and has penetrated into the interior at only a few 
places. The total number of Mohammedans is reported to be only about 300,000, 
and many of these have only a superficial connection with Islam through the observ- 
ance of certain rites. The Government Report for 1922 states that two or three 
Arabs from Aden or Mecca visited some of the Mohammedan communities during the 
year, not apparently to proselytize, but to inquire into the religious state of the 
followers of their faith. 


THE All reports indicate that a very large proportion of this great Territory 
coUNTRY is agriculturally productive. Some districts in the central plateau are 

hampered by a lack of rain. Reference to the description of the five 
geographical areas shows the comparatively high altitude of a large part of the 
territory. More than a third of the total area has an altitude of over 4,000 ft. All 
but a sixth of the territory is over 1,500 ft. above sea-level. These facts, together 
with the well-known fertility of the extensive areas, support the cl aim that the country 
is capable of great variety of vegetation, from the strictly tropical plants of the coast 
to the grains and vegetables of the temperate zone, which can be grown in the higher 
levels of the south-western and north-eastern sections. The principal exports for 
1922 were: 


a 
Sisals210;200i tons, «valued vat atjrreette leet en ae 290,000 
Cotton; 113500 tons, “valved ta tte) era eee een 141,000 
Coffee/*4,800/tons; rvallted a0es- 5st nos) ee ere 204,000 
Ground nuts, 12,500 tons, valued at . - + - + = - 190,000 
Grains, 19,000 tons,<valued:ate|..ciues Ae re 134,000 
Copra, 4,800 tons, valued at “pt 14 late tice wl tela eae Belen OLOUO. 
Hides and skins, 1,500 tons, valued at. . . + + + > 66,000 
Sim-sim,42,800.,tons, wwaluedcaty; oii Olea ee 50,000 
Bees-wax, 888 tons, valued at . - © + + + + + + 25,000 
Ghee; 880) tons, -valuediatjiuhs 2 oie 9 eee e pe 18,000 


The total exports in 1922 amounted to almost £1,500,000; in 1923 to £1,733,000. 
These increases show the rapidity with which the Territory is becoming productive. 
The country has also considerable wealth in live stock, as the large herds of the 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 175 


Native people indicate. Withthe elimination of rinderpest and other animal diseases, 
stock-raising will become more general. While the forests are at present neither 
extensive nor valuable, re-afforestation has been vigorously begun. There are some 
indications of mineral resources, including gold, coal and mica, but as yet there is no 
profitable production. 


EUROPEAN European influence in the Territory began with settlement by 
INFLUENCES the Portuguese in the latter part of the fourteenth century. They 

were later driven out by the Arabs, who continued in control until 
the Germans took possession. In 1884 Dr. Karl Peters, a German explorer, made 
treaties with Native chiefs. On this basis the German Government established a 
protectorate in 1885. The important events in the German administration were the 
Arab rising and the launching of the first German steamer on Lake Nyasa in 1889 
and a serious Native rising in 1905. According to the census of German East Africa, 
in 1912, the total white population was 4,866, of whom 968 were in Dar-es-Salaam, 
433 in Tabora, 432 in Tanga, and the others were distributed throughout the Terri- 
tory. The Germans formed three-fourths of the total number. It is interesting to 
note that 637 were in government employ, 201 being officers and non-commissioned 
officers of the Protectorate troops ; 449 were missionaries ; 758 cultivators, farmers 
and gardeners; 827 engineers and contractors ; 429 laborers and mechanics; 442 
traders and shopkeepers, and 29 medical doctors, chemists and dentists. This 
distribution of occupation reflects the varied lines of European influences during 
German control. The results of the German occupation are seen in the railways, 
the substantial buildings, and numerous scientific studies of the Native people, as 
well as of the physical elements of the country. 

By Article 119 of the Treaty of Peace, signed in 1919, Germany renounced, in 
favor of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers, all her rights over her overseas 
possessions. These Powers, in 1920, assigned to Great Britain a mandate to govern 
that part of German East Africa known as Tanganyika Territory, and to Belgium 
another section, approximately that of the districts of Ruanda and Urundi. 


The mandate lays down conditions directed against slavery, forced labor (except for essential 
public works and services), abuses in connection with the arms traffic and the trade in spirits, usury 
and the recruiting of labor ; it safeguards the interests of Natives in their lands and forbids the 
transfer of Native land to non-Natives except with the consent of the authorities, and it provides for 
complete commercial equality among nationals of States which are members of the League of Nations 
and for complete religious freedom. 

The seat of the Government is at Dar-es-Salaam. The Governor and Commander-in-Chief is 
assisted by an Executive Council. For administrative purposes the territory is divided into 22 
districts under District Commissioners and Administrative Officers. The system of administration 
is to support and supervise with the least possible interference the Native authority as existing or 
established. It is the object of the Government to establish and encourage Native authority where 
the chiefs have, for different reasons, lost much of their control over their subjects. In some districts 
this is more difficult than in others as the tendency towards disintegration of the tribes which had 
begun even before the war was naturally assisted by four years of war and upheaval, but the policy 
of the Administration, carried out through the District Officers, is to restore central authority to the 


176 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


hands of the rightful chiefs. Native tribunals have been established and given limited power where- 
ever possible and the increasing number of cases taken before them for settlement shows their popu- 
larity. These Native courts are yet under strict control of the European Administration. 


The following analysis of the estimated ordinary expenditures for 1923-4 indicates 
the principal activities of the Government, arranged according to their direct or in- 
direct influence on the education and general welfare of the Native people : 


Total Ordinary Governmental Expenditure adi tigen e 
I. Education, agriculture and health pt . £201,583 
Education,* £138,156; agriculture, £31,371; health, 
£104,538 ; forestry, £14,324; veterinary, £35,144. 


21,519,981 


II. Territorial administration S yee cheer ae ES Peete 12000 
Governor, secretariat, legal department, district admini- 
stration, etc. 

Ill. Military, police and prisons 291,266 


Military, £170,429 ; police and prisons, £120,837. 
IV. Publie works, railroads, highways, posts and telegraphs =. 572,377 

Public works, £111,994; railroads, £393,089; tram- 

ways, £2,833; posts and telegraphs, £64,461. 


In addition to the ordinary expenditure, amounting to more than £1,500,000, 
there were £416,800 for extraordinary costs in public works, railways, and also 
probably war reconstruction. Comparison of estimated expenditures with the income 
shows that the deficit will amount to £680,000. It is important to note that the 
direct contribution of the Native through hut and poll tax is approximately £389,000. 
His indirect contribution in addition to this sum is quite considerable. 

Group I of the expenditure in the above table includes the £13,156 for educa- 
tion and appropriations for health and agriculture, each of which is closely related to 
Native welfare. The amount for education is less than one per cent. of the ordinary 
expenditures and well below that in most British Colonies. Adding the costs for 
health and agriculture, the proportion is 13 per cent. This compares favorably with 
other British areas and is higher than those of non-British governments in Africa. 

The territorial expenditures in Group II constitute about 15 per cent. of the total. 
This is the usual percentage spent on administrative officers in British Colonies. 
The District Officers and their assistants are in close touch with the Native people and 
exert an influence of great value. Reports indicate that the British officials main- 
tain a closer contact with the Native people than the German policy encouraged. 

The expenditure in Group III for military, police and prisons, amounting to 20 
per cent. of the total, is considerably above the average in British Colonies. This 
is doubtless due to the necessary reorganization of the population after the disruptions 
of the war. It is the policy of the Government to train both the Native police and the 
soldiers to deal with the Native people in as friendly a manner as possible. The 
extension of educational facilities to the masses of the people will make possible the 
rapid decrease of this large item of expense. 


* For 1925, the estimate for education is £32,074, with additional sums for buildings. 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 177 


Group IV includes expenditures for public works, railways, highways, posts and 
telegraphs. These are 88 per cent. of the total, without counting the extraordinary 
appropriations, amounting to £416,000, which are for similar expenses. The propor- 
tion spent from ordinary expenditures is about the same as that in most of the 
Colonies. In view of the great distances of this large Territory, with fertile areas 
in inaccessible sections, the extension of railways and highways is amply justified 
for the permanent development of the country and the people. 

Some government departments claim special mention for the excellent qualities 
of their work. This is notably true of the Medical and Sanitary Departments. The 
last Medical Report shows that there were 43 government hospitals and dispensaries 
in the Territory in 1921. The principal facts concerning the hospital and sanitary 
work are as follows : medical officers, 20 ; nursing sisters, 12 ; sub-assistant surgeons, 
16; compounders, 22; Native hospital staff, 297; beds, 1,115; Native sanitary 
inspectors, 24; Native sanitary staff, 956. It is not possible to give an adequate 
description of the work of these Departments. The following quotation from the 
Medical Report for 1921 presents some interesting facts concerning the sanitary con- 
ditions of Native Africans, as well as the significant point of view of the Medical 


Officer : 


The sanitary environment of the town dweller, considering his stage of development in the scale 
of civilization, is, on the whole, good. He has a right regard for sanitary administration and a 
confidence in modern methods of checking the spread of disease. The shenzi, on the other hand, 
is most backward. This is the man we find living in his hut in company with his domestic animals. 
The phenomena of life and death cause him neither much joy nor any great sorrow. A wave of 
disease passes over the land and leaves him less affected by it than by an outbreak of rinderpest 
among his cattle. And yet, somehow, the sanitarian must get at this class of the community. He 
and his kind can only be approached through education, and let it be remembered that no exotic 
system of sanitary education is contemplated. Sons of Jumbes and Headmen attend government 
or mission schools. <A part of their teaching must be in the principles of elementary hygiene. 

A beginning in the teaching of this subject has already been made in the Dar-es-Salaam Govern- 
ment School. The subject matier is of the simplest. For instance, the pupil is asked : Why should 
I have a sanitary convenience in my hut courtyard ? Why must I not encourage flies to breed near 
my house ? How can I stop them doing so? Why should I not allow pools of stagnant water 
near my house? It is hoped shortly to have a small booklet ready which will be read in school, and 
to arrange for demonstrations on the life history of the mosquito and the fly—nature study, in 
fact. No boy can fail to be interested in the changing processes of life when they are going on under 
his very eyes. He sees one morning a collection of mosquito eggs, and day by day in his classroom 
he can watch the changes until the adult mosquito is found hanging to the gauze cover of the jar. 
It is all a question of propaganda, Propaganda will actually be the determining factor in the war 
against disease in uncivilized Africa. 

It is for this reason that the Health Branch is working in the closest liaison with the Education 
Depariment. Without the assistance of the schools, the sanitarian will be hopelessly crippled in his 
efforts to raise the sanitary ideals of the African or the Asiatic. 


The Agricultural and Veterinary Departments employ a considerable staff 
including both Europeans and Natives. Both work in cooperation with the Educa- 
tional Department. Laboratories are conducting investigation of stock-raising and 
the cultivation of the soil. They have had some success in the training of Native 


178 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


stock inspectors and Native agriculturists. The Native farmers are responding to the 
suggestions of these Departments and larger crops are being produced. 

The total European population in 1921 was 2,500. Of these 900 were in the 
Coastal Area, 555 being in Dar-es-Salaam and 225 in Tanga. The Northern District 
had 890, of whom 387 were in Arusha, 209 in Moshi and 125 in Mwanzi. The Central 
Area had nearly 400 Europeans, mostly living in communities on the Central 
Railway. The Western Area contained 200 Europeans, the Southern Area only 64. 
The Asiatic population in 1921 was 15,000, of whom 10,000 were in the Coastal Area, 
2,500 in the Central Area, and 2,200 in the Northern Area. The European population 
includes government officials, settlers, traders and missionaries. The Asiatics are 
primarily traders. Comparison of the German census of 1912 with that of 1921 
shows a decrease of European population from 5,000 to 2,500. With the progress 
of reconstruction European population is steadily increasing. The extension of rail- 
ways will open considerable tracts of fertile land with climatic conditions favorable 
to European settlement. Under the ideals established by both the British Govern- 
ment and the League of Nations, such settlement will doubtless proceed to the 
advantage of both the Colony and the Native people. 


II, EDUCATION 


Native education in Tanganyika was drastically disrupted during the Great War. 
The destruction of the German government system of education and the removal of 
more than 400 German missionaries are losses that cannot soon be retrieved. The 
school facilities at the outbreak of the war are summarized in the following quotation 
from the Report to the British Parliament for 1921 : 


The provision already made or foreshadowed for Native education at the outbreak of war was 
a clear indication of the importance which the Germans attached to it. The vote for 1914 provided 
14* Europeans on the staff of the Education Department ; there were already 99 government schools, 
10 of which were principal schools and the remainder elementary ; provision had also been made 
to build a further 20 elementary schools during that year. The number of pupils in attendance 
at the principal schools in 1918 was 2,394, and at the elementary schools 3,706. There were also 
108,550 children on the registers of the 1,832 schools conducted by the missionary societies. The 
results of their system are to-day evident in the large number of Natives scattered throughout the 
country who are able to read and write, and it must be admitted that the degree of usefulness to the 
Administration of the Natives of Tanganyika Territory is in advance of that which one has been 
accustomed to associate with British African Protectorates. Whereas the British official may 
often have had to risk the mutilation of his instructions to a chief by having to send them verbally, 
the late German system has made it possible to communicate in writing with every Akida and village 
headman, and in turn to receive from him reports written in Swahili. 


Other British government reports refer favorably to the educational work of 
missions under German administration. Special acknowledgment is given to the 
influence of German missions through the emphasis of their schools on hygiene, 
agriculture and industry. The Protestant missions of German origin were the 
Leipzig, Berlin, Bielefeld and Moravian Missions. The British missions were the 


* The Director of Education states that the German staff was 24. 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 179 


Church Missionary Society and the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. The 
Seventh Day Adventists also had work. The Roman Catholic Societies were the 
Black Fathers, the White Fathers, and the Benedictines. 

The British Government in 1919 was faced with the reorganization of the work 
that had been discontinued and to some extent destroyed. Authority was given 
to the District Political Officers, in December, 1919, to reopen some of the government 
schools. A Director of Education was appointed in September, 1920, and educational 
reconstruction was immediately begun. The Director realizes fully the extent of his 
responsibilities for the education of 4,000,000 Native people throughout the Territory. 
The estimated number of children of school age is 800,000. The provision of schools 
for this large number of children, scattered over the vast territory of Tanganyika, 
requires great financial resources, a large staff and sufficient time to carry out plans 
and especially to train teachers. The Report of the Education Department for 1923 
shows that there are 5,000 children enrolled in 65 government schools, taught by 185 
Native teachers under the direction of 5 European officers.* In addition, the mission 
schools report a total of 115,000 children in 2,200 schools taught by 2,200 Native 
teachers, under the direction of 150 European missionaries. The government 
expenditure for education in 1922-23 was £13,140, about 1 per cent. of the total 
revenue for the Territory. 

These statistics show that the Government has made commendable progress in 
the reorganization of schools during the last three years. Genuine effort has been 
made to relate the school work to the condition and the needs of the people, especially 
as regards health and agriculture. The Director has prepared a simple booklet on 
hygiene in the Swahili language for use in the Native schools. Practice in gardening 
is required in practically all the schools. The buildings are comfortable and suited 
to the climate. 

With full appreciation of the educational methods and the progress made by the 
Department of Education, it is obvious that the governmental provisions are utterly 
inadequate to deal with the educational needs of this great Territory. In comparison 
with the contributions of non-British Governments to education, both the financial 
appropriation and the number of schools are fairly high. The serious departure of 
Tanganyika from the educational policy in British Colonies in Africa is in the refusal 
to give grants-in-aid to mission schools. The Government has thus disregarded 
the most potent educational ally available in Africa. Missions have struggled on 
with their limited means and are rendering a great service to the Native people and 
the Territory. With encouragement, aid and direction from the Government, the 
missions could greatly increase and improve their educational work. 

Mission schools in Tanganyika are maintained by 13 societies, of which 9 are 
Protestant and 4 are Roman Catholic. These societies report 115,000 pupils in 
2,200 schools. In view of the fact that “‘ practically every Mission reports unopened 
schools and an attendance only a fraction of that of pre-war days,” the Director of 


* See footnote on page 181. 


180 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Education suggests the difficulty of harmonizing these figures with the returns of 
1913, showing 108,500 pupils and 1,830 schools. The divergence is emphasized by 
the fact that the 19138 figures included the enrollment for Ruanda and Urundi with a 
Native population almost as large as that of Tanganyika. Furthermore, the German 
census of 1912 reported over 400 missionaries as against 157 in 1923. These confusions 
all point to the importance of a close relationship between Government and missions. 
There have been similar errors in other colonies, through the inclusion of mission 
schools in more than one colony. The important fact is that missions with large 
and resourceful work in other colonies are maintaining many schools in every part 
of the Territory. 

Tt is necessary to note the distribution of both government and mission education 
in relation to Native population in the five geographical areas and the 22 political 
divisions. Reference to the description of these areas in the earlier paragraphs 
of this chapter will indicate their principal economic and social conditions. On the 
basis of the available facts concerning missions it is possible only to designate the 
societies working in each area as follows : 


Northern Area. Native population 1,885,700, 
Government : 22 schools ; 1,414 pupils. 
Missions: White Fathers; Fathers of the Holy Ghost; Evangelical Lutherans ; 
Seventh Day Adventists. 
Central Area, Native population 1,144,000. 
Government : 12 schools, 1,114 pupils. 
Missions: White Fathers; Fathers of the Holy Ghost ; Church Missionary Society ; 
Africa Inland ; Moravian. 
Western Area. Native population 470,300. 
Government : 5 schools, 351 pupils. 
Missions : White Fathers ; United Free Church of Scotland ; London Missionary Society. 
Southern Area, Native population 327,600. 
Government : 7 schools, 411 pupils. 
Missions : Benedictine Fathers ; Capuchin Fathers ; Church of Scotland. 
Coasial Area. Native population 778,400. 
Government : 19 schools, 1,597 pupils. 
Missions: Fathers of the Holy Ghost; Benedictine Fathers; Capuchin Fathers ; 
Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, 


The German Missions at work before the war were Lutheran; since then the Evangelical 
Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America has been helping the derelict missions. The way 
is now opening for the return of some German missionaries to their former fields. 


These facts show that Government has made some beginning in all the 22 
districts. 'The numbers are exceedingly small in the western and southern sections. 
The missions are also well distributed throughout the five areas and the 22 districts, 
all but Rufiji and Kilwa in the Coastal Area having some mission schools. The 
Protestant societies report approximately 800 schools and 50,000 pupils ; the Roman 
Catholic missions about 1,400 schools and 65,000 pupils. Their societies and pupils, 
schools and fields of service are as follows : 


a ae 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 181 


PROTESTANT 
Pupils. Schools, Area. 
Church Missionary Society . . 15,918 152 Central. 
Lutheran... «hear ee 9,622 139 Northern, 
Universities’ Mission ne Ee 8,412 207 Coastal. 
United Free Church of Seotiata 8,196 cee Western. 
Church of Scotland Mission F 3,841 64. Southern, 
Africa Inland Mission. . . . 1,613 42 Central. 
Seventh Day Adventists. . . 913 10 Northern. 
London Missionary Society . . CUE 25 Western. 
NOTA VIANA co) s se eee 509 21 Central, 
Roman CarHouic 
WViniiemialhersras. « eatete mei. 1s 29,332 525 North, Central and Western. 
Order of the Holy Ghost. . 15,260 543 North, Central and Coastal, 
Benedictine Fathers . . . . 13,666 250 Southern and Coastal. 
Capuchine lat hets ese meeemin sy. 5,524 110 Southern and Coastal. 
Lialiane Ha lbersna ee 6. meee ces 1,500 27 


With all possible allowance for errors in the statistics, as well as for the poverty and 
inefficiency of the little out-schools, this presentation of the distribution and number 
of mission schools is a very impressive indication of the educational potentialities of 
missions. An even more convincing assurance of their possibilities in Tanganyika 
is their record in other colonies, where some of them have transformed barbarism 
into the orderly activities of civilization and all of them have made substantial 
contributions to the welfare of the Native people and colonial development. 


GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 


The European staff of both the Department of Education and the government 
schools consists of the Director of Education, two headmasters and two assistant 
masters. As one or more of these is usually in England on leave, the European 
officers are limited to three or four at the most. It is evident that such a staff is 
not sufficient for the inspection of the government schools without the additional 
responsibility of acting as headmasters of any special school. The inability of the 
present staff to establish any contacts with the widely distributed mission stations 
is even more obvious.* The fact that all but the Director are assigned masterships 
means that the inspection of schools is negligible. 

The government system contemplates a series of central schools under Kuropean 
masters to train teachers and serve as centers for the supervision of schools in the 
areas. At present there are only three schools of this type, situated at Dar-es- 
Salaam, Tanga and Bukoba. Attractive buildings have been erected at Tabora, 
but they have not been used, on account of delay in securing a suitable European 
master. Plans have also been made for a central school with boarding, indusirial 
and agricultural departments at Mpapua, and it is hoped to have the buildings 


* During the current year the European staff is being increased by 9 officers—a Deputy 
Director of Education, 5 schoolmasters, 2 industrial instructors and an office superintendent or clerk, 


182 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


constructed in 1925. The following description of the school at Tanga presents 
some of the features of a central school. Unfortunately, it lacks the agricultural 
environment, as strongly advocated by the Director of Education. 


The school, situated in the coast town of Tanga, is now in charge of a European headmaster 
who has a staff of ten Native school teachers and eight Native industrial instructors. There are 
304 pupils at the school, all boys, and provision is being made to take in 25 boarders. Most of 
the pupils come from Tanga, but the intention is later to take in pupils who have passed through 
the district schools. The languages of instruction are Swahili and English. The class work is 
done in an elementary school with six graded classes and the advanced school has two graded classes. 
There is also a night class for the apprentices of the workshops, where elementary and primary 
instruction is given. Industrial instruction is given in the following subjects : carpentry, boot- 
making, tailoring, blacksmithing, masonry and building, and typewriting ; there is a special class 
for training Native dressers as hospital assistants. No provision is made for religious instruction, 
and this is also the case in the government district schools. Physical drill and football are included 
in the curriculum. 

All the office and school furniture has been made in the school workshops and the school also 
supplies district schools with the necessary school furniture. Part of the buildings have been put 
up by the pupils, who are also employed in doing the same thing at the district schools, The school 
stands in about three acres of land which is enclosed by a wall. The very substantial school buildings 
were taken over from the Germans. 


The standard of teaching appeared to be very good and the general cleanliness 
and appearance of the buildings and pupils were quite remarkable. The most 
interesting feature in the management of the school was the cooperation and interest 
the headmaster had been able to obtain from the Native members forming the 
School Board. The School Board not only assisted the headmaster by their advice 
and opinion, but has contributed no small amount of money to be spent on the 
school. ‘The comment of the headmaster on moral training is quite significant : 


Moral training, from the religious standpoint, is outside our province, but I would like to suggest 
that if facilities were given officially for instruction in any creed to take place in the school curri- 
culum, we would get a better type of boy in the school and better results. 

In this school, for instance, it might be made the business of the Kadhi to lecture and direct 
the religious instruction of the Mohammedan children, while the local mission could cater for the 
few Christians. 

T do not suggest this with a view to proselytizing, but on the grounds that it is good discipline 
that boys already professing a creed should be made to practise it; and that the task of forming 
character divorced from a definite code of morals is not likely to succeed. 

I consider that a better type of boy would come to school when his parents found that he could 
be taught his Koran at the school, under bona fide Waalim chosen by the Kadhi. 

At the moment the better class boy seems to be destined for a life of elegant repose, and by 
leaving him to it I suggest we are starting to create a literate class separate from the rank and file, 

The forming of character being therefore of the first importance, I would like to urge that 
boarding accommodation be again asked for, and that the suggestions made above be considered 
seriously. 


The 65 government elementary schools vary in size, equipment andtype. Of the 
21 schools built in 1923, 13 were constructed by sultans, 5 by Government and 3 by 
the village people. The best types are constructed of sun-dried bricks. One class 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 183 


room has doors and windows to ensure the safety of school property ; the other room 
has walls only 4 ft. high. The curriculum stresses not only the three R’s but also 
agriculture. In one school the boys clothed themselves out of the communal fund 
maintained from the sale of produce and from money earned by senior boys who 
assisted in the collection of poll tax. The serious obstacle in the maintenance and 
multiplication of these schools is the lack of properly trained Native teachers. The 
present staff has been trained almost entirely in mission schools. 

The entire absence of any governmental provision for the education of girls and 
women is to be regretted. Fortunately, the missions do have a considerable propor- 
tion of Native girls in their schools, and fortunately, too, the Director of Education 
is strongly advocating the organization of schools for women and girls, as the following 
quotation from his Report indicates : 


The returns of the missions show that there are 43,358 girls under the influence of education in 
some degree, though the degree is for the most part deplorably inadequate. A negligible number 
of girls attend isolated government schools but no separate provision is made for female education. 

It would be useless to pretend that this condition reflects anything but a grave weakness in 
the educational scheme, and it cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. If Africa is to become 
emancipated, such emancipation must come from within, not from without. Although the first 
steps towards such an end must necessarily be through the men and the school, by which means 
the Mohammedan and pagan prejudice against the education of their girls will gradually be broken 
down, the perfecting of a school system and the final advance to a complete civilization must come 
through the homes. The mothers of Africa are the predominant influence in her development, 
and progress will be largely measured by the degree of speeding up female education, The effort 
of teaching a man hygiene will be largely wasted if his partner in the home has not the intelligence 
to appreciate its value. In such circumstances, the dice are loaded against the man and there will 
be a tendency to sink back to the woman’s level. The husband who, after a full day’s work, will 
have the patience to teach the ideals he has learnt at school to a possibly unwilling pupil in the 
person of his wife will be the exception rather than the rule. 

While fully alive to this all-important consideration in educational development, the Government 
has not been in a position, nor has the Education Department been established long enough, to 
give it the attention which it ought to receive, but it is hoped that a beginning may be possible in 
the near future to make provision for the education of the girls whose parents will not permit them 
to attend a mission school. 


Mission SCHOOLS 


The place of mission schools in the educational system of Tanganyika has been 
discussed and several facts have been presented concerning their geographical 
distribution and numerical strength. The European staff in charge of the 2,200 schools 
with about 115,000 pupils is only 157. As they all doubtless have other responsi- 
bilities in addition to the supervision of schools, the quality and extent of their 
influence must be comparatively small. This is partly indicated by the fact that 
the average attendance is only about 66,000 or one-half those on roll. The number 
of boys in mission schools is estimated to be 70,000 and girls 45,000. 

Seven teachers’ training schools are reported. As it has not been possible to 
assemble adequate data concerning each mission society, the following brief facts 
are given mainly from the Report of the Director of Education : 


184 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Universities’ Mission to Central Africa 


Sphere of influence : Tanga, Pangani and Lindi Districts, divided for the purpose 
of educational organization into 17 mission districts—viz., Maizi, Misozwe, Kizara, 
Tongwe, Bembwera, Kigongoi, Korogwe, Mandera, Magila, Mkuzi, Majembe, Masasi, 
Lulindi, Luwatala, Newala, Njawara, and Lumesule. The Mission has a training 
school for teachers which will shortly be transferred from Zanzibar to the mainland, 
and a Theological College at Hegongo. 

There are 4 primary schools in which instruction is given in English, to which 
selected boys from the out-schools are admitted. From these schools boys are passed 
on to a Training College. The majority of the teachers in charge of village schools 
hold the teaching certificate of St. Andrew’s College, Kiungani, the teachers’ training 
school, and a regular inspection of the village schools is maintained by a staff of 8 
European women, who are certificated teachers, assisted by a few Africans. 

Cottage industries such as mat and basket-making are taught in some schools, 
and the girls are taught sewing in many places, but little has been doffe so far to 
organize instruction in industries. Several schocls have Scout Troops. Swahili 
is used as a medium of instruction wherever possible. 


Church Missionary Society 


Sphere of influence: Dodoma, with the sub-district of Manyoni, and Kilosa. 
Seven mission stations or districts : Berega, Buigiri, Handali, Kilimatinde, Kongwa, 
Mpapua and Mvumi. At Kongwa there is a college for training native teachers, 
with 25 students. The curriculum includes hygiene; the instruction is given in 
Swahili. English is taught to those who can benefit by the instruction. 

Kach station has a large and well-attended school at headquarters and a number 
of small out-schools. Instruction is given in the vernacular, Chigogo, and Swahili 
is taught in the higher classes. Elementary English is taught at Mvumi. Six 
Europeans assist in the teaching, 2 men and 4 women. Mat, basket and rope- 
making are taught, but no provision is made for instruction in the more skilled trades. 


Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee 


This Mission is working in the Iringa District and in Mkasu, a sub-district of 
Mahenge, with the following mission stations for the purpose of school organization : 
Kidugalo, Ilembula, Brandt and Merere’s, Makoga, Hanyana, Lupembe, Lulanga, 
Mkasu and Ndwewe. 

There are 3 primary schools. At Kidugalo instruction in industries is already 
a feature of the school curriculum, and carpentry, tailoring, hospital work, sewing 
and gardening are already taught. The Head of the Mission holds the Diploma 
of Education of Edinburgh University. Carpentry and industries generally are 
under the direction of a qualified European, assisted by trained Native instructors 
from Nyasaland. A certificated dressmaker is responsible for the instruction in 
sewing and for the tailors’ shop, where she is assisted by a Nyasa tailor. 

A European Sister is in charge of the hospital, and with the assistance of a trained 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 185 


hospital assistant (Native) undertakes the training of the apprentice hospital atten- 
dants. She also conducts regular medical inspections of the school children, in which 
work she is assisted by the wife of the Superintendent of the Mission, also a trained 
nurse, An interesting feature of the work is a scheme to develop, in connection with 
every village school, a garden which will be worked by the pupils for the benefit of 
the village. Cotton seed has been promised by the Agricultural Department, and 
will be distributed, its cultivation by the Natives being encouraged by the mission. 


United Free Church of Scotland (Livingstonia Mission) 

The Livingstonia Mission works in the Rungwe District. Its educational activi- 
ties are organized in three sections with headquarters at Kyimbila, Isoko and Itete 
respectively, each under the supervision of a European missionary. At Kyimbila 
a woman missionary assists in the teaching; there is also a European in charge 
of the industrial work and physical training. There are schools for the training of 
teachers at Kyimbila and Isoko, the former also receiving candidates for training 
from Itete; all teachers are called up for a month’s instruction annually. There 
are primary as well as elementary sections in the school at headquarters. Elementary 
English is taught in the village school of Isoko ; otherwise the medium of instruction 
is the vernacular of the district. Due prominence is given to industrial work, and 
instruction is given in agriculture, bricklaying, carpentry, wood-carving and basket- 
making. The qualifications of many of the teachers are small; pending the training 
of more and better qualified men progress cannot be rapid. The Mission is also in 
temporary charge of the Konde synod of the Berlin Missionary Scciety, whose 
stations are visited periodically from Kyimbila and Itete. 


London Missionary Society 
This Mission works in the Ufipa District. All schools are elementary, and instrue- 
tion is given in the local dialect. Inspection is maintained by 2 European mis- 
sionaries from Northern Rhodesia and 4 Native inspectors. School work is conducted 
for seven months during the year—for a term of four and three months, and only 
half of the schools are run at the same time. English is taught to teachers. At 
Kawimbe, Abercorn, they have an annual course of training lasting eleven weeks. 


Seventh Day Adventists 


The Seventh Day Adventists have two missions in Tanganyika Territory : one 
is situated in the Mwanza Province south-east of Victoria Nyanza, and the other in 
the South Pare District which is approached from the Tanga to Moshi railway line. 
In the Mwanza Province there are 6 stations, with a European family located at 
each. There are 50 out-schools connected with these stations and 56 Native teachers. 
The enrollment in the schools is about 1,800, and the Church membership is about 150. 
An extension of school activities is under consideration, but no provision is yet 
made for instruction in industries or for the training of teachers. 

The South Pare Mission has two stations, with a European family in charge of 


186 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


each. There are 33 out-schools and 40 Native teachers. The school enrollment is 
2,500 and the membership is 250. 


Evangelical Lutheran Missions 


Before the war there was a considerable amount of educational work done by 
German Lutheran Missions in Tanganyika. The Leipzig, Bielefeld and Berlin 
Missions had stations and schools. The Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of 
North America has recently taken over some of the former German work, principally in 
the districts of Moshi and Arusha. There are 84 parochial schools with 115 teachers 
and nearly 5,000 scholars. The teachers’ seminary at Marangu, closed since the war, 
is probably to be reopened shortly. The schools of the late Bielefeld Mission in the 
Usambara District are on the point of being reorganized. There are six mission 
stations in the Usambara Hills to which no missionary has yet been appointed. 
There are also schools amongst the Wazaramu in the district of Dar-es-Salaam. 
All schools are at present elementary and instruction is in the local dialect, except 
in the higher classes. In addition to the three R’s, geography is taught at the 
headquarters’ schools. The reorganization of industrial instruction has not yet 
been takenin hand. It is anticipated that it will be possible to introduce the teaching 
of English in the near future. 


Africa Inland Mission 


The Africa Inland Mission works at Nera in Mwanza District and Shinyanga 
in Tabora District. All schools are elementary. The medium of instruction was 
not quoted. There does not yet appear to be any provision for instruction in indus- 
tries. All teachers were called in to the central mission station during June and 
July for a course of instruction. 

Moravian Mission 

This Mission is engaged in work amongst Wanyamwezi in the Tabora District 
and in the Manyoni Sub-district of Dodoma. The mission stations are at Kilimani- 
Urambo, Usoke, Sikonge, Ipole and Kitunga. All schools are elementary. A 
course of instruction for the members of the Native teaching staff is held annually 


by the Superintendent at Sikonge. An industrial school for instruction in carpentry 
was to be opened during 1924 at Usoke. 


White Fathers 


Tanganyika Vicariate——There are thirteen mission stations in the Ufipa, Rungwe 
and Kigoma Districts, viz., Karema, Utinta, Kirando, Kate, Chala, Zimba, Mamba, 
Urwira, Kala, Mwayye, Mkulwe, Galula, and Kigoma. The Mission has two semin- 
aries for the training of Native priests: the junior seminary at Karema which has 
about 60 pupils; the senior is at Utinta. The curriculum includes English. All 
schools are elementary and, in addition to the religious instruction, only reading is 
taught, except at the station schools, where writing and arithmetic are included in 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 187 


the curriculum. Swahili is the language of the schools. Forty teachers are receiving 
a course of training at Zimba. No return of industrial instruction is made. 

Nyanza Vicariate——The work of the White Fathers is widely extended in the 
Bukoba and Mwanza Districts. There are twelve mission stations at the following 
centers : Ukerewe, Koma, I[hangiro, Katoke, Lutabo, Kagondo, Marienberg Kashozo, 
Bukoba, Bukumbi, Nyegina, Bumwe and Mwanza. Each has its system of 
elementary schools. There is a seminary for training priests at Rubya. The report 
does not mention any industrial instruction in connection with the schools. 

Unyanyembe Vicariate-——The Mission of the White Fathers extends through the 
District of Tabora with its Sub-district Kahama, the Mbulu Sub-district of Arusha 
and the Singida Sub-district of Dodoma. There are seven mission stations at the 
following centers: Tabora, Itaga, Ndala, Ushirombo, Mbulu (Iraku), Mbulu 
(Kahama) and Turu. The Mission maintains a seminary for 70 students at Itaga, 
but it is not stated whether provision is made for training teachers. The 7 station 
schools are of elementary standard, and in addition to the three R’s geography 
and singing are taught. There are 88 out-schools. Instruction in industries is not 
shown as having a place in the curriculum of any of the schools. 


The Order of the Holy Ghost 


Kilimanjaro Vicariate——The sphere of influence of this Mission extends to the 
districts of Arusha, Moshi, Usambara, Tanga, and Kondoa-Irangi. The Mission, in 
addition to the schools mentioned previously, conducts a training school and five 
crafts schools, where carpentry and masonry are taught. 

Bagamoyo Vicariate-——The vicariate extends to the districts of Bagamoyo, 
Morogoro and Dodoma. Records are incomplete and only a return of elementary 
schools is submitted. No mention is made of any provision for the training of 
teachers or for industrial instruction. 


The Swiss Capuchin Fathers 


The Mission influence extends to Dar-es-Salaam and district ; to Mahenge, where 
there are stations at Kwiro, Sofi and Ifakara; and to Kilwa, where there is a station 
at Kipatimu. A convent school for Goan and other Christian children is conducted 
by the nuns in Dar-es-Salaam, but apart from this all work is elementary, and no 
provision for the training of teachers or for instruction in industries is yet reported. 
The Mission has only been in possession of the field for a short time. Although 
no details of industrial endeavor are submitted, this Mission has flourishing work- 
shops at Mahenge, where carpenters and wheelwrights are taught. Much of the 
furniture, etc., used by the Europeans stationed at Mahenge is made at this Mission. 


Swiss Benedictine Fathers of Uznach 
The Mission has nine stations in the districts of Lindi and Songea, viz., Lituhi, 
Kigonsera, Litembo, Peramiho, Namupa, Lukuledi, Mnere, Ndanda, and Mirola, 
two of which are unoccupied. Swahili is taught in all elementary schools; there 


188 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


are no primary schools at present. There is still a considerable shortage in staff 
and equipment. The scheme for industrial training is to include the following : 
sawing, joinery, blacksmithing, brickmaking and burning, farming and gardening. 


III. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The policies and activities of the British Government in Tanganyika briefly 
outlined in the foregoing paragraphs are emphatic evidence of the genuine efforts 
made to realize the ideals of the authority and responsibility of the mandate granted 
in accordance with the terms of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Slavery 
has been abolished. The land and the resources are being conserved with a real 
regard for the interests of the Native people and for territorial development. Tribal 
traditions and Native opinion are recognized in the formation of government policies 
so far as they are in accord with the welfare of the people and the standards of civiliza- 
tion. The Departments of Health and Agriculture are conscious of the condition 
and needs of both the interior villages and the coast towns, and both departments 
have already achieved helpful results. The terrible chaos which the Great War 
created in the economic, political and community organizations throughout this 
vast area and its scattered peoples has been replaced by peace, order, prosperity 
and the mutual confidence necessary to the normal progress of the Territory. These 
are achievements which should command the gratitude of all concerned in the welfare 
of Africa and the Africans. 

The plans, work and results of the Director of Education and his limited staff 
are a vital part of these achievements. They have necessarily been outlined at greater 
length than those of other departments. Even so, it has not been possible to give an 
adequate account of either the wisdom of the plans or the extent of the result accom- 
plished under the limitations of funds, staff, and the after effects of war disruptions. 
The educational objectives of the Director of Education and his staff are among the 
best in any of the government departments of Africa. 

With full appreciation of both the plans and the results of the Department of 
Education, it is strikingly obvious that the Department has been seriously limited— 
first, by the failure of Government to furnish adequate funds and staff, and second, 
by the government policy imposed upon the Department of refusing grants-in-aid 
to the many experienced missions eager to cooperate as far as their resources admit 
in the great task of educating the Native people. 

It has been shown that, statistically, the educational task is to organize and main- 
tain schools to train the children of four million Native people, distributed over an 
area three times as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. Estimating one-fifth 
of this population as the children of school age, the number for which provision must 
ultimately be made is 800,000. Comparison of this large number with the government 
school system of 14 Europeans, 185 Native teachers, 65 schools and about 5,000 
pupils, proves conclusively that Government has not hitherto had a sufficiently 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 189 


serious regard for schools as factors for the improvement of the people and the Colony. 
It is evident that the multiplication of the present system by ten would only be a 
good beginning. Even then the element of time would be necessary, first, to train 
a European and a Native staff to organize education on lines related to community 
life, and second, to win the confidence of the Native people. 

Under the circumstances, it is difficult to understand the failure of the Government 
to cooperate with the numerous missions, who, even if their work in Tanganyika 
itself be on simple lines, are famous for their really great achievements in education 
in different parts of Africa. The facts quoted from the Report of the Director of 
Education present a most impressive assembly of mission organizations already in 
the Territory, witha European staff ofearnest, devoted and educated men and women; 
with Native workers, admittedly of limited training, but nevertheless known to the 
missions for stability of character ; with buildings and equipment, the construction 
of which has been an education to the Native community ; and, most important of 
all, with a command of the confidence of thousands of Natives in their respective 
sections of the Territory. Most of these missions have been working in East Africa 
for many years. It is admitted that they are the pioneers of the land. Some have 
only recently entered Tanganyika to staff in part the derelict German missions. 
The statistical summary of the missions in the Territory shows the following significant 
facts :—Mission societies, 18; European and American missionaries, 157; teacher- 
training schools, 7; about 2,200 Native workers, and the same number of village 
schools ; approximately 115,000 pupils, of whom about 70,000 are boys and 45,000 
girls ; and expenditures amounting to £14,000. If mission salaries were estimated 
at government rates, this sum should be increased by at least £50,000. 

It is clear that missions and Government can be mutually helpful. Their co- 
operation would have very great results in the improvement of the people and the 
Territory. At present even the combined results of mission and government schools 
are very far from meeting the educational needs of the 4,000,000 people. Missions 
ean establish influence, supply buildings and some staff; Government can con- 
tribute funds, and both plans and influence to correlate all educational activities for 
the adaptation of education to the everyday needs of the masses of Native people 
in the Territory. To this end, the following observations are presented to Government, 
missions, and those concerned in Native education : 

1. The determination of the Government to increase the staff of the Education 
Department promises much for the future of education in the Territory. It is urged 
that the increase shall be sufficient not only to supervise the government schools 
but ‘also to establish intimate relations with the many mission schools throughout 
the 22 Districts of the country. 

Coincident with the increase of staff and funds is the need for a higher status 
for the Director of Education and the Department of Education in the administrative 
system. Surely the care of the youth of the land should:compare favorably in 
responsibility with work for the physical development of the country. 

2. The desire of the Government to appoint an Advisory Committee on Native 


190 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Education is in accordance with the educational plans in practically all the British 
Colonies in Africa. The Committee should represent Government, missions and the 
economic interests of the Colony. As soon as possible, it is desirable that Native 
opinion should also be represented. It is realized that the mission membership 
should be in proportion to the number of schools meeting government requirements. 
The smaller missions should combine to secure the election of a representative on 
the Committee. 

3. The British practice of grants-in-aid to missions has proved to be both effective 
and economical. In comparison with the great values given to the Colony in human 
service, any financial aid to the missions will only be a recognition of the helpful 
influences exerted throughout the Territory for many years. Comparatively small 
contributions would result in such increased educational efficiency as to enable the 
missions to undertake a large part of the government responsibility for the education 
of the people. It would be unfortunate if grants-in-aid to missions should be regarded 
as in competition with appropriations for the Government Department of Education. 
The grants should be made as supplementary to the educational activities of the 
Government. It should be clearly understood that they are given because the 
educational results will be greater. One British official has wisely expressed. the 
principle that missions should be aided in any educational service which they can 
render more economically and more effectively than Government. It is, of course, 
understood that appropriations should be given only in accordance with the recom- 
mendation of an effective system of supervision. 

4. It is suggested that the organization side of the Government Department of 
Education should, for the present, be chiefly concerned first, with the maintenance 
of a few schools in different parts of the Territory to serve as types of educational 
work required, and second, with supplying schools for the children of 300,000 
Mohammedans. The phases of education which should be illustrated in the govern- 
ment schools are teacher-training, health and hygiene, knowledge and practice of 
agriculture and animal industry, village handicraft and industrial skill, training of 
women in mothercraft and care of home, healthful recreations and character develop- 
ment. All these phases of education may be included in the larger central institu- 
tions. Schools for teacher-training must of course provide for instruction along all 
these lines. It may be desirable to have some schools devoted entirely to training 
in agriculture, others to industrial skill, and others for Native girls and women. It 
may also be necessary to maintain schools of different standards to illustrate the 
methods of education adapted to village needs. So far as possible, economy requires 
that the government schools shall not be situated where mission schools are already 
at work. 

5. The cooperation of Government and missions requires a mutual agreement 
as to educational terminology. The arbitrary imposition of European terms is not 
only confusing but harmful in its’encouragement of an educational content unsuited 
to African conditions and needs and also in the imposition of age limits that are 
impossible among a primitive people. The correlation of terms descriptive of the 


TANGANYIKA TERRITORY 191 


mission school system with those that may be used by Government requires a clear 
understanding of the evolution of the mission system and the obligation of Govern- 
ment to use terms that are intelligible in other colonies in Africa. The development 
of the mission system described at length in the chapter on Educational Adminis- 
tration shows that practically all the missions have two, three or all the grades 
suggested, namely, the central station school, the station school, the central village 
school, and the village school. The smaller missions have only the mission station 
and the village schools. The larger missions have the central station and a series 
of station schools, each with village schools. 

Of the terms used by Government in East Africa, those best suited to African 
conditions are “ Local,” describing the smallest schools with any type of Native 
teacher; “ Intermediate” for schools now usually with an European teacher in 
control and exercising supervision over local schools ; and ‘‘ Central schools ”? under 
Kuropean supervision, with both European and Native teachers and usually with 
dormitory facilities. The term “‘ Local” includes both the village and the central 
village schools of the mission system. When it is desirable, it is suggested that 
Government may use the term “‘ Higher Local”’ to describe the schools under certifi- 
cated Native teachers. The advantage of these terms is, first, that they indicate a 
gradation of community influence and school supervision, and second, that they are 
flexible as regards the content and standard of school subjects. They could, indéed, 
be adopted by mission societies, and it is recommended that this shall be done. The 
weakness of the terminology is that it does not indicate the subject content and 
therefore makes comparison with other systems impossible. As this is out of the 
question in any case, it is urged that the necessary comparisons shall be based upon 
earefully prepared statements of the quality of work done in the various grades of 
schools described by the terminology suggested. Comparison would be still more 
accurate if the organization and supervision of each type were also presented. In 
view of the fact that educational terminology in Europe and America is not uniform 
in meaning, it is desirable that any use of terms should be accompanied with an 
explanation of subject content. 

6. The emphatic recommendation of the Director of Education that schools for 
Native girls and women shall be organized deserves immediate attention. His 
discussion of this important subject has already been quoted. Equally important 
are his efforts to provide facilities for the adequate training for Native teachers. 
It is certain that the 4,000,000 Native people require the leadership of Native 
men and women who are sufficiently educated to understand the essentials of com- 
munity life and sound government. The almost negligible number of Europeans in 
the Colony cannot hope to transmit the ideals of civilization to the masses of the 
people without the aid of many Native teachers and leaders. . Educational provision 
must therefore give thought to the higher levels of education. In addition to the 
central institutions maintained respectively by the mission societies, it will be 
necessary in the course of time for Government to provide a higher institution to 
which Native pupils may go when they are prepared, Reference to the chapter on 


192 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


« Educational Administration ” presents a plan of school organization adapted to 
the needs of tropical Africa. 

7. Government has already indicated the determination to increase supervision 
and especially its approval of the plan of itinerant teachers to guide and encourage 
the little local schools throughout the Territory. The improvement of the hundreds 
of little schools through supervision by both missions and Government is probably 
the most effective means of transmitting to the masses of the people the simple facts 
essential to health, the effective use of the soil, handicraft, decencies of home life, 
healthful recreations and character. 

8. The wise selection of the languages of instruction is exceedingly important in 
areas so largely under the influence of non-European peoples. There is a danger 
that the claims of both the local vernacular and the European language shall be 
overshadowed by the ease with which the people learn such a lingua franca as Swahili. 
While Swahili is the prevailing language of the coastal people and is known to the 
Natives who have traveled, it is not dominant among the interior tribes. The 
vernaculars have therefore a vital claim to recognition in the school system. The 
advantages of a knowledge of a European language should also be seriously considered. 
The ease with which Swahili can be transmitted should not be permitted to exclude, 
at least in all higher schools, a knowledge of English or some European language, 
which not only gives access to officers of Government but spreads the influences 
of civilization among the Natives. It is of course recognized that a smattering of 
the foreign language is objectionable. The cure for any unfortunate influence of a 
European language is much more likely to be a reasonably thorough study of it 
than an effort to deny to the people knowledge of such a language. 

9. The conviction of British colonial officers is unanimous and increasingly 
emphatic in the recommendation of the influence of religion in the education of the 
Native peoples. The desire to avoid the imposition of a foreign religion should not 
be permitted to exclude religious influence from Native schools. It has seemed, in 
some instances, that consideration for the rights of the Mohammedans has excluded 
the influence of other religions. As the Mohammedans are less than 8 per cent. of 
the total population it is important that provisions for them shall not prejudice 
other religious teaching in schools. Christian missionaries, who preceded 
Government in the Territory, have achieved a much wider influence than that of 
Mohammedanism. It is obvious that the religious right of their followers should 
also be recognized. Government cannot, of course, be the instrument of any religious 
organization. It can, however, make provisions for religion to have a real influence 
in all educational activities. ‘‘ The right of entry ”’ and denominational hostels con- 
tribute in this direction. Religious influences so limited, however, may be superficial 
and artificial. The most effective teaching of religion is that which colors every 
educational act, whether in the classroom, the field, the shop, the home or the 
playground. The religion of words alone is often dangerous and misleading ; 
religion should also express itself in the concrete responsibilities of manual work 
and social service. 


Cuaprer VIII 
NYASALAND 


AND-LOCKED Nyasaland, with its unusually effective type of mission education, 
|e virile Native people, its extensive resources of soil and natural beauty, awaits 
the provision of adequate transportation within the Protectorate and still more the 
establishment of a reasonable outlet to the sea for its great potential wealth. 

The types of Native people are equal to the best in any part of Africa. The 
high fertility of the soil and the favorable elements of climate are an assurance of 
productivity. Mission influences, from Livingstone’s discovery of Lake Nyasa in 
1859 to the present day, have achieved remarkable results, both in revealing the 
resources and beauty of the country and in the education of the Native people. These 
Natives trained in handicraft or in sanitation and hygiene, and dependable in character, 
have been welcomed by Governments and commercial undertakings in Tanganyika, 
Belgian Congo, the Rhodesias and Portuguese East Africa. Of them it may be said : 
“ Other Colonies they are serving, but their own people they cannot serve.” 

The unfortunate condition of Nyasaland with regard to transportation is strik- 
ingly confirmed by a comparison of its exports and expenditures with those of such 
small Colonies as Gambia and Zanzibar. Nyasaland, with a Native population six 
times that of either and an area of fertile land ten times that of Gambia and forty 
times that of Zanzibar, is below them in both exports and expenditures. In fact, 
it is in these respects the lowest of all the British Colonies in Africa. It is obvious 
that the development of the Protectorate requires the best British statesmanship, 
so effective in other parts of Africa, both to solve the difficult problem of transporta- 
tion and to make adequate use of the educational achievements for which N yasaland 
is indebted to a long line of missionaries, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


The Nyasaland Protectorate is a narrow strip of land fifty to a hundred miles 
wide, extending from 10° to 17° south latitude, a distance of 520 miles. Its area is 
roughly 40,000 square miles, equal to about a third of the British Isles and almost the 
same as the State of Virginia. Two-thirds of the territory include the highlands on 
the west coast of the great Lake Nyasa, whose length is about the same as that from 
Southampton to Edinburgh. 

The climate is in the main agreeable and healthful. The population is approxi- 
mately 1,200,000 Natives, 1,500 Europeans and 660 Asiatics. Though the Indian 
Ocean is in a direct line only 180 miles away, the sole practical outlet is to Beira, a 
distance of 360 miles, through Portuguese territory, on railways owned by four 
different companies. The drastic limitation of such an arrangement on the prosperity 
of the Protectorate is revealed in numerous ways. 

193 


194 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


"34 . aise 


TAN GANYWIKA 


TE R Roa ORY. 


SWANS. 
<4 
ADNIAOUd 


alee | fe 


(HIGHLANDS 
Blantyre <q 
(SOU\T H\E 


Encuise MILES 
50 





NYASALAND 195 














THE The distribution of the population in the three Provinces is shown in the 
PEOPLE following table based on figures presented in the Government Blue Book 
for 1922: 

Persons per 

Native. European. Asiatic, Area, square mile, 
Southern Province . . . . 525,177 1,094 529 12,501 42°1 
Central Province . . . . 450,812 242 40 10,751 41°9 
Northern Province . . . . 212,142 66 5 14,638 14°5 
1,187,631 1,402 574 37,890 31°4 


About half the Native people, two-thirds of the Europeans and almost all the 
Asiatics are in the Southern Province. The greatest density of population is in the 
Central Province. The average density of 81 persons to the square mile of fertile 
land, rather generally distributed throughout the country, indicates both the possibility 
of extensive cultivation as well as the increase of persons interested in farming. 

The principal tribesin the Protectorate are the Angoni, the Yao and the Tonga, war- 
like races, and the Wa-Nyanja, commonly called Nyasa, who are more peaceable. The 
Angoni, a Zulu tribe, broke away from the famous chief Chaka and, after causing much 
commotion among the inhabitants, settled west of the Lake and in Northern Rhodesia. 
The Yao, dispossessed of their homes east of the Lake by other invaders, settled in 
various parts of the country and in some places drove out the original Nyasa. The 
Angoni count their descent through the men; the Yao and the Nyasa count theirs 
through the women. The Nyasaland tribes belong to the Bantu group and their 
languages, dialects, religion, folklore and tribal and family organization resemble those 
of the Bantu tribes. Some of the tribes show an aptitude for drawing and music. 
The Native tunes are often beautiful. This applies especially to those of the Angoni. 
The vivid description of anevening with this tribe, quoted in an earlier chapter, shows 
how large a place music, dancing and games have in the life of the people. 

Students of Native life in Nyasaland give striking testimony to the industry and 
skill of the Native in agriculture, fishing and village crafts. The excellent results 
achieved by the industrial departments show that the Natives have manual dexterity 
and an artistic sense of beauty in line and colour. Owing to the conditions of land 
tenure described in the section on European influence, there is no policy of segregation 
and the Native is free to carry on his traditional mode of living ; keeping his live 
stock and doing a little gardening to meet his needs. ~ For the most part Native land 
is owned communally, but a form of individual ownership is being adopted in crowded 
districts. ‘The number of live stock owned by Natives in 1922 was reported to be 
101,000 cattle, 60,000 sheep, 175,000 goats and 30,000 pigs. In the southern 
districts of Nyasaland several Natives are said to own and cultivate cotton plantations 
of considerable size. Owing to the absence of economie pressure, the Native tends to 
develop slowly. As land is not scarce and market facilities are lacking, it is difficult 
to create interest in better methods of agriculture. The very limited opportunities in 
Nyasaland and the demands for labor elsewhere are causing a considerable proportion 


196 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of the Native men to leave their homes to work in mines, on plantations or in towns, as 
laborers, artisans or domestic servants. Natives trained in mission schools of Nyasa 
have been seen by members of the Educational Commission in all the eastern Colonies 
south of Kenya. Even the non-British Colonies are using these Natives in important 
hospital, clerical and mechanical positions. 

It is generally believed that the Native people of Nyasaland are more healthy and 
virile than those of the neighboring regions. The census shows an increase of 
24 per cent. for the preceding decade, but this unusually large increase is hardly to be 
accepted and is probably due to improved methods of enumeration. There are some 
indications that the rate of increase has been retarded by the long absence of many of 
the men employed outside of the Protectorate. Occasional famines, the high mortality 
of infants and venereal disease are making inroads on the health of the Native people. 

The pagan superstitions are being rapidly replaced by the activities of several 
missions whose work will be described in the second section of this chapter. The 
Christian societies are effecting important changes in village customs, both industrial 
and social. Owing to Arab influence, there are a number of Native Mohammedans 


in the Colony. 


THE The natural resources of Nyasaland, both in soil and climate, are of two 
COUNTRY types, namely, those of the lower levels of Lake Nyasa and the Shiré 

River valley with tropical climate and vegetation, and the climate of 
the higher temperate zones. The agricultural potentialities of the Protectorate are 
extensive and varied. The proportion of cultivable land is large, though its use 1s 
limited in many sections by the lack of water. The principal exports in 1928 were 
cotton, 2,182,000 lbs. ; tobacco, 5,158,000 lbs. ; tea, 963,000 lbs. ; fibre, 1,674,000 lbs.; 
rubber, 127,000 lbs. ; coffee, 92,000 lbs. The extensive plateaux with the cooler 
climate make possible the production of many of the cereals, vegetables and fruits of 
the temperate zone. With reasonable transportation facilities to the coast, the 
exports now so lamentably small could be multiplied many times. Pending the 
solution of this most important problem, it is suggested that some form of cooperation 
may be effected for internal transport. 


EUROPEAN While Dr. Livingstone was still engaged in exploring the Shiré Highlands 
INFLUENCE towards the close of 1859, he was joined by Bishop Mackenzie and his 

fellow workers of the newly-formed Universities’ Mission to Central 
Africa. In 1875 the Scottish missions sent out their first members. In 1878 
the African Lakes Company began its work. A British Consul for the territories 
north of the Zambezi was stationed at Blantyre in 1883. Severe struggles with Arab 
slave traders and the chiefs under their influence continued for some years, and finally 
the whole of the territories known as Nyasaland was declared a Protectorate of Great 
Britain in 1891. It is significant that at the time (1888) when European Powers were 
competing for spheres of influence in Africa, the northern end of the Lake was recog- 
nized as pertaining to Germany, the southern part of the east side to Portugal and 


all the rest to Great Britain. 


PUATH EX TT 


“UdprLBA) U0F}0) OY} UL Sulsoy (p) § vquioz ye yooyos 
ISUTILA W (9)  Surureay, sof ur Sururoo SLOYOVaT, [OOYS-3nGO (q) + “w'e OSL: TLIC. 3B Skog (v) 


ardjuelg (1) 


SNOISSIW GNV’IVSVAN HOO 





PLATE XXIV 





FOUR NYASALAND MISSIONS 
(2) Livingstonia 
(a) Pupils Gardening : (b) Apprentice Builders at Work. 


PrATE: XXVi 





FOUR NYASALAND MISSIONS (3) 
Universities’ Mission 
(a) Women’s Dispensary at Kota Kota ; (b) Church with Thatched Roof and Birch Walls, 
Kota Kota ; (c) Some Women Teachers at Likoma, 


> XXVI 


PLATE 


EE 


‘sXoY UOISSIPY : SuIp[ingye o119} ap ast (p) fuidg 0} SurureayT yor plo uy (9) § Buoy yy 


YW SOUIPTINE, UOIssIPY OY, (q) * 


UOISSIT POULLOJaY YO NT WoIy SpITH Jo dnoayy : vurecourg (v) 


BULOUYIN 
(F) SNOISSIN GNVWIVSVAN WOON 





NYASALAND 197 


The Protectorate, for administrative purposes, is divided into Southern, Central 
and Northern Provinces, and again sub-divided into districts. The administration 
under the British Colonial Office is carried on by a Governor, with Executive and 
Legislative Councils. In each Province there is a Provincial Commissioner, with 
Residents to administer the various districts. Efforts are being made to develop 
Native administration and to bring the people under the control of Native chiefs. 
Principal Native Headmen, assisted by Native Councillors and Village Headmen, are 
responsible for good order and attend the District Councils held by the Resident. 
The Native Headmen have no judicial powers at present. Under European direction 
they deal with the maintenance of discipline, the apprehension of criminals, sanitation, 
the movement of cattle and so on. 

There are 17 government departments with a total staff of about 200. Forestry 
is included in the Department for Agriculture. The medical report for 1923 shows 
that 99,522 received treatment in government hospitals and dispensaries ; the rural 
dispensaries number nearly 70. The Department of Health and Sanitation works 
in Native villages and settlements. 

The estimated revenue of the Protectorate for 1923-4 was £278,800. Up to 
£111,800 was contributed by the Natives in hut taxes. Some items in the estimated 
expenditure of this revenue in 1924-5 raise serious questions in the mind of those 
concerned with the education of the African. 


Total Estimated Expenditure for 1924-5 . . . .... _. £288,162 
I. Education, agricultureand health . . . . , £50,817 
Education, £3,000 ; agriculture, £16,815 ; 
medical and sanitary, £31,002. 

If; Vetritorial administrations °s..6s) ss). .-% 48,821 
Governor, legislature and secretariat, £9,556 ; 
district administration, £33,855; courts of 
justice, etc., £5,410. 

Ill. Military, police and prisons . . . . . . . 
Military, £28,260; police, prisons and lunatic 
asylums, £18,312. 

Ve ODN GAVROF Ki le tre te eee fo 63,824 
Transport, land and marine, £17,822 ; land and 
surveys, £4,009 ; post office, £12,363 ; public 
works, £29,630. 


Reference has already been made to the small expenditures for Nyasaland in 
comparison with other British Colonies very much below it in area and population. 
Sierra Leone, with a smaller area and a population only a little more, has expenditures 
almost three times as much. The contrast with Gambia and Zanzibar is even more 
striking. The proportion of expenditures assigned to each of the four groups classified 
above is much the same as that in other territories with the notable exception of 
education, which is almost negligible. Group JI, including health and agriculture, 
received about £51,000 or 18 per cent. Territorial administration costs £49,000 or 
17 per cent. of the total. The educational value of district administrative officers 

H 


198 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


is exceedingly important. The large amount spent on military, police and prisons 
seems out of proportion in comparison with the negligible amount on education. 
It must be admitted, however, that these expenditures have been necessary in the 
early years and still contribute an educational influence. Group IV includes the 
various activities of the Public Works Department for the physical improvement 
of the Colony. It is evident that this Department must spend an increasing pro- 
portion of the income so long as transportation facilities are so inadequate. Every 
phase of colonial development will be handicapped until roads and other means of 
communication are adequately developed. It is reported that there are at present 
3,500 miles of road. Most of this cannot be used in the long wet spells. Several 
steamers ply on Lake Nyasa, but they are not always regular and the freight is 
costly. Railway communication with Beira was completed in 1922, but traffic on 
the single line goes over four different systems and crosses the Zambezi by steamer. 

The conditions of land tenure in the Protectorate have claimed the attention of 
the Government. Owing to the tendency of the Native Chiefs to give away to 
European interests vast tracts of land belonging to their tribes, a Commission to 
inquire into the occupation of land was appointed in 1920. It was found that about 
one-seventh of the total area of the Protectorate was held by private owners under 
certificate of claim. The price paid was adjusted to fair value, the Native Chiefs had 
opportunity to repudiate certain bargains, and the authentic grants were confirmed. 
The chiefs have secured to the Government the control of all the remaining land. 
Since then some 140,000 acres have been granted in freehold and 120,000 under lease. 
There are still about 21 million acres of unalienated land of which about 6 million 
acres are classed as cultivable. The Land Commission of 1920, whose recommenda- 
tions are still under consideration, estimate that 3} million acres of this will be required 
to meet the need of the Natives for the next 80 years, at the rate of 8 acres of cultivable 
land to provide food for each hut. This leaves 23 million acres available for other 
purposes, including non-Native development and forest reserves. The Land Com- 
mission was of opinion that “the institution of Native Reserves would be an 
unwarrantable interference with the free occupation by the people of their native 
land and would be totally unsuited to their manner of life.” This emphatic opinion 
is further explained in the Report : 


Our recommendations will involve the definition, not of Native Reserves, but after meeting the 
needs of the Native population and providing for forest reserves, of areas for European settlement. 
. . . Its advantage to the Native will be his knowledge that where he is now he will be allowed io 
remain and he will have what he has not now, some feeling of security of tenure in the area on which 
he has chosen to settle. 

A majority of this Commission is of opinion that the cultivation of cotton by Natives should be 
encouraged in every possible way and that it would be unfair to the Native to check it as a hindrance 
to the European cotton plantations. 

There is already a desire among Natives for the individual ownership of land, and this is becoming 
stronger in proportion to their general progress. We think it is one to be in every way encouraged 
among those Natives, comparatively few as yet, who are sufficiently advanced. We regard the 
individual ownership of land as one of the main starting points of the Native’s progress, enabling him 


NYASALAND 199 


to separate from the communal village society and to lead a life of individual responsibility. Through 
it also we look for improvement in the methods of Native agriculture and for greater economy of the 
soil. Fixity of tenure is the best incentive to these and is what the Native greatly desires. 


The principal non-Native land owners are as follows: British South African 
Company with 2? million acres, practically all the North Nyasa district ; the A. L. 
Bruce Trust, 170,000 acres ; Blantyre and East African Company, 91,000 acres ; U.F. 
Free Church of Scotland, 59,000 acres ; African Lakes Corporation, 50,000 acres ; 
Zambezi Industrial Mission, 31,000 acres. The following quotation from the report 
of the Land Commission explains the attitude of these large landowners towards 
the leasing or selling of their lands : 


We have examined representatives of all the largest landowners in the Protectorate and we may 
say at once that we are satisfied that, except in one case, there is no reluctance on their part to dispose 
of land to suitable applicants, that several have either alienated or agreed to alienate very large areas 
within recent years and that the development carried on upon the areas retained is as great as the 
economic situation and the available labor make possible. 


The employment of Natives by Europeans in the Protectorate is regulated by 
an Ordinance of 1910, which deals with payment and the care of the laborers. 
Officers in charge of the various districts and sections are responsible for the enforce- 
ment of the regulations. No labor can be recruited outside the Protectorate 
without written permission from the Governor. Natives wishing to leave the 
Protectorate in search of employment or under a contract of service must obtain a 
pass from the magistrate. Before issuing this pass the magistrate must be satisfied 
that the Native has made satisfactory provision for the maintenance of his family 
during his absence and for the payment of his taxes. These regulations, as well as 
the findings of the Land Commission, reflect the genuine interest of the Government 
in the welfare of the Native people. 


II. EDUCATION 


The Native population of Nyasaland is, according to the latest official estimate, 
1,200,000. Estimating one-fifth as the number of children of schoo] age, the total 
of those who should be in school is 240,000. Of this number, with due allowance for 
the poverty and inadequacy of many of their schools, 146,800 are reported as enrolled 
in the 2,748 schools carried on by the various missions. This is rare testimony to 
a work maintained without the aid of Government or the assistance of a Director of 
Education. One of the missions alone spends well over £21,000 per annum. The 
Government grant in 1907 was £1,000; in 1920 it was increased to £2,000; for 
1924-5 it is budgeted at £3,000. Hitherto the Government has spent eight times 
as much on police, prisons and lunatic asylums as on the education of the people. 
On the travelling expenses of district officials far more is spent than is given by 
Government for the education of the people thus administered. Happily it is not 
necessary to stress this neglect of education, for the officials recognize that Government 
is not fulfilling its obligations, and the missionaries are aware that the assistance of 


200 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Government is essential to the advance of their work: There is every reason to hope 
that a Department of Education will soon be organized to stimulate and direct the 
school activities of all missions and to develop cooperation for the education of the 
Native people. 

The larger missions in Nyasaland follow the Nyasaland Educational Code, pub- 
lished in 1910. It was drawn up by an Education Board representative of several of 
the missions which was appointed by the United Missionary Conference held at 
Blantyre in 1910. It was a pioneer effort of great value, prepared at a time when 
there was little to guide those endeavoring to adapt education to the needs of 
primitive tribes in Africa. It is now recognized that the Code is too complicated, 
and that its content is not suitable, emphasis being laid upon literary subjects to the 
neglect of those relating to health, agriculture and Native crafts. It is urged that 
the whole Code needs revision and it is expected that the matter will shortly be 
considered at an Education Conference at Blantyre. The missionary societies at 
work in Nyasaland* are shown in the annexed table : 


Schools and Pupils on 
Training Centres. the Roll. 








United Free Church of Scotland . . . . . 401 20,000 
Church of Scotland Mission. . . . «+. «+ - 308 15,000 
Dutch Reformed Church Mission . . . . - = 718 38,000 
Universities’ Mission to Central Africa . . . 194 7,600 
Montfort Marist Fathers’ Mission . . . - - 388 18,000 
White Fathers’ Mission © . = +9 =. « = 191 9,000 
South Africa General Mission . . . - « + 60 3,500 
Seventh Day Adventist Mission . . «. | - 65 5,000 
Zambezi Industrial Mission is. bin eRe 100 4,000 
Nyasaland Industrial Mission . . -« + + + 69 4,000 
Baptist Industrial Mission . . - + + = > 32 1,800 

2,521 126,900 


THE UnIversITIES’ Mission TO CENTRAL AFRICA 


The Universities’ Mission was founded in answer to an appeal made by Dr. 
Livingstone to the University of Cambridge in 1857. Bishop Mackenzie arrived in 
the country in 1861 and is buried there. The Mission has a long series of devoted 
leaders who have given their lives for Africa. The diocese of Nyasaland includes 
18 stations, 8 of which are in the Protectorate, the remainder being in Portuguese 
East Africa. The diocesan staff in 1924 consisted of Bishop Fisher, 4 archdeacons, 
20 priests of whom 7 are Natives, 1 deacon, 14 laymen and 24 women, of whom 10 
are nurses and 14 are teachers. A noteworthy feature of its general work is the 
excess of women over men in church membership. The educational work of the 
diocese in Nyasaland, Portuguese East Africa and Tanganyika includes 868 schools 
with some 14,000 pupils. The medical staff of the diocese includes 12 nurses, of 


*In several instances educational statistics in Nyasaland are inseparable from those of 
outlying stations of the same missions in Portuguese East Africa. 


NYASALAND 201 


whom 11 are in Nyasaland itself. The Mission reports a total of some 1,200 in- 
patients, of whom over five-sixths are in Nyasaland, and no less than 135,000 out- 
patients, including patients visited in their villages. Nyasaland accounts for over 
115,000 of this total. 

The report for the Nyasaland Protectorate shows 194 schools and 7,592 pupils, 
of whom about 1,000 are boarders. The girls in these schools number 4,544 and the 
boys 3,084. The comparatively large number of boarders is the result of the wise 
practice of allowing pupils and especially boys to sleep at the Mission and thus avoid 
the orgies so frequently carried on at night. 

It is the policy of the Mission to use the school as auxiliary to the Church. The 
teachers are evangelists first and teachers after. Supervision and itineration—which 
are fully carried out—are more for religious than for educational purposes. The school 
equipment falls short of that of other missions in Nyasaland. The Nyasaland 
Educational Code is not followed. Among the women members there are trained 
teachers of unusual capacity who might be given wider educational scope. The 
Mission, though prepared to cooperate with Government and to welcome sympathetic 
inspecticn, is unwilling to accept Government aid for its schools. In view of this 
policy, no comparison can be fairly made between its schools and those of other 
missions. 

St. Michael's Training College, Likoma 

The central training institution is at the north end of Likoma Island. At the time 
of the Commission’s visit there were 57 boys and men in attendance, half from 
Portuguese territory. In the following term they rose to 70, 50 being students 
in their first course and 20 being young teachers returning for a final year. The 
staff consisted of a priest as principal, with one European and two Native assistants, 
The subjects of instruction are Scripture, Prayer Book, English, Arithmetic, Singing, 
Composition, Geography, Portuguese, Transcription, Method and Drill. Hygiene and 
Agriculture did not appear in the curriculum. There is no practising school. The 
discipline and deportment of the boys seemed good. They live in huts at the 
College and do their own cooking. The food seemed good and plentiful, and the 


oversight excellent. Boys’ schools belonging to the Mission were also visited at 
Likoma and Kota Kota. 


Girls’ Schools 


The Universities’ Mission has been more successful in attracting girls to school 
than any other mission in the Protectorate. This is partly due to the unusual control 
which the Mission has over the Native people on Likoma Island through its ownership 
ofallthe land. It is also explained by the very capable women teachers. At Likoma, 
the schools had 1,000 girls in attendance, with two European teachers and over 25 
untrained Native assistants. Of the 68 women teachers in training, 22 are reading 
for the third and fourth certificates and 21 are married women holding the 
preliminary certificate. 


202 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


THe CHuRCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION 


The Church of Scotland Mission was founded in 1876 by a pioneer missionary who 
had accompanied the first part of the Livingstonia Mission in 1875. The first station 
was located at Blantyre, now the center of the province south of Lake Nyasa. The 
influence of the Mission has spread into the districts of the Southern Province. In 
1884, a station was opened at Domasi, in 1890 another at Mlanje, in 1895 another at 
Zomba, the Government headquarters. In 1893, a station was opened at Panthumbi 
with a staff of Native workers. In 1913 there were extensions into Portuguese Kast 
Africa, and in 1920 into Tanganyika territory. The long service of Dr. Alexander 
Hetherwick, and the capable colleagues who have participated in the work, have 
exerted a notable influence, not only on the Natives, but on every phase of colonial 
development. Government and economic organizations recognize the substantial 
contribution of the Mission to the welfare of the Colony. Dr. Hetherwick has been 
a member of several important Colonial Commissions, and still serves on the Legisla- 
tive Council. Each station has a position of unique importance in its respective 
district. 

The most notable feature of this Mission is its plan of organization and supervision. 
The plan more nearly realizes that described in the chapter on ‘“‘ Administration ” 
than any other in East Africa, and, indeed, was the basis of a number of the suggestions 
in that chapter. The general features of the organization are as follows : 


First ; Blantyre is the central station for all the work. The varied types of teacher-training 
provided at Blantyre are described in a special section on this great institution. 

Second ; Blantyre and the other stations serve as the center of education and religious work in 
their respective districts. One European teacher at each station spends his whole time in visitation 
of all the village schools under the station. The plan requires that each school shall be visited at 
least once during the session and those nearer several times. The certificated teachers of the central 
village schools report monthly regarding the educational and evangelistic work of their districts. 

Third : Each mission station has a series of central village schools, each of which is in turn the 
center of a group of village schools. Owing to the fact that these central schools use both the English 
and the vernacular they are called Anglo-vernacular schools. A certificated Native teacher is in 
charge of the school and is responsible for the visitation and supervision of the vernacular or village 
schools in his districts. This head teacher also directs the work of the Native teachers who are taking 
the Acting Teachers’ Course as prescribed in the Nyasaland Educational Code. Each year the 
certificated teachers are required to spend two months at the Blantyre Institution, one month for 
further instruction in teaching methods and one month for evangelistic training. The course in these 
central village schools completes Standard III, beyond which the pupils proceed to the central mission 
station. There are 50 schools of this grade : 22 under Blantyre, 12 under Mlanje, 9 under Domasi 
and 7 under Zomba, 

Fourth : So far as possible every locality has a village or vernacular school taught by those who 
are taking the Acting Teachers’ Course or by low grade teachers who are being improved as rapidly 
as possible by special instruction and supervision. Those taking the Acting Teachers’ Course are 
required to report at the Blantyre Institution for two months’ intensive instruction and for examina- 
tion. Owing to the exigencies of the village school system, which has to be regulated by the demands 
of the neighbouring plantations for labour, and owing also to the lack of dormitory accommodation, 
the Blantyre Institution has been unable to develop adequately this part of the teachers’ training, 
possibly the most essential of all, to the effective work of the village schools, the total number of which 
is 804. 


NYASALAND 203 


The system thus organized provides for the natural evolution of the quality of 
school work as well as for the promotion of pupils from the lower grades to the higher. 
Altogether there are 14,908 pupils in the system, of whom 10,760 are boys, 4,148 
are girls. The small proportion of girls probably reflects both the indifference of the 
Natives to the education of women and also the failure of the Mission to give adequate 
emphasis to this phase of their work. The total number of Native teachers is 547, 
of whom 79 hold ‘“ schoolmasters’ certificates’? and 122 ‘* Anglo-vernacular Acting 
Teachers Probationers’ Certificates.” Those without certificates or in training 
are divided as follows: Teachers finishing Standard V number 30; Standard IV, 
85; Standard III, 106; Standard II, 65; Standard I, 31; in Standards VI to VITI 
of the Normal Course, 19; pupil-teachers, Standard V, 10. The records show that 
98 have been in the teaching service for over ten years, 228 over three years and under 
ten, and 221 under three years. These facts are interesting and significant as an in- 
dication of the extent of teacher-training, but much more as an evidence of careful 
supervision exercised by the Church of Scotland Mission. 


Blantyre Institution 

Blantyre is one of the notable educational institutions in Africa. While its 
immediate influence is extensively distributed throughout the southern province of 
Nyasaland, its pupils are known in all the neighboring colonies. The variety of 
departments corresponds to the important needs of the Native people as well as of the 
Colony. As the center of the well-organized system already described, the Institution 
has a great responsibility which it is meeting with commendable success. Its limita- 
tions are chiefly the result of the lack of funds. The Institution has many sub- 
stantial buildings and attractive, well-kept grounds. The Blantyre Church, of unique 
architectural beauty and the center of all the buildings, typifies the place of religion 
in the life of the Institution. There are also the extensive hospital facilities, the schools, 
the shops, dormitories and several well-constructed residences for the staff. The 
gardens are real achievements, both in the variety and beauty of the flowers and in 
the extent and abundance of vegetables. 

Situated in the most developed province of Nyasaland, the type of training naturally 
gives large consideration to the more advanced stages of Native life. It is hoped 
that the increasing educational interest of the Government may result in larger 
financial resources so that the Institution can provide more instruction and training 
for the teachers of the small village schools. It is obvious that the village teachers 
must be concerned with the little needs of the masses of the Native people. These 
needs include skill in the repairs of their small houses and agricultural implements, 
improved methods of gardening, simple principles of sanitation and hygiene. When 
it is possible to enlarge dormitory accommodation, the Institution will doubtless 
emphasize the training required along these lines. In addition to the lower standards 
of instruction, the school provides training for the various grades of teachers already 
mentioned. To qualify for admission to the normal school, pupils have to complete 
Standard III. They then take Standard IV to VI of the upper school, and two 


204 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


additional years of instruction with practice in teaching. At the time of visit, there 
were 30 pupils who were receiving thorough and effective training. 

Vocational training is offered in carpentry, agriculture, printing, clerical work, 
sanitary and medical services and sewing and tailoring. Under the present arrange- 
ments, pupils taking vocational training must first pass Standard ITI, and then take 
a year (Standard [V) in the department into which they wish to apprentice themselves. 
At the end of that period they sign articles of agreement for four years. During the 
first two they attend school for half the day and pass through modified Standards 
V and VI. The last two years are devoted entirely to the practice of their chosen 
trade. In the Commercial Department, pupils are taught business method, type- 
writing and book-keeping. The Institute gives a certificate in this course, and boys 
who hold it are in great demand as store men or clerks in government offices. In 
the Printing Department, complete instruction is given and creditable work is done. 
The youths in this class usually enter the government service as clerks, as there are 
no openings for printers in the Protectorate. The manual training for teachers, 
including school gardening, carpentry and brick building, is to be reestablished 
during the coming session. 

The great medical work at Blantyre, and the large number of trained attendants, 
and latterly of female nurses who have been sent out by the hospital, are making a 
valuable contribution to the welfare of Nyasaland. In quite a number of central 
village schools there are little dispensaries carried on by the head Native teacher. 

The mission garden is probably the best in Nyasaland. The Natives are trained 
to become flower and vegetable gardeners. The gardening includes arboriculture 
and there is a fine propagating station. There is also a cattle kraal and a piggery, 
but apparently no instruction in stock-raising is given. The addition of instruction 
in agriculture and gardening will make the trained teachers employed in rural areas 
more useful to their communities. 

Dr. Hetherwick rightly sums up the contribution of the Mission to the industrial 
needs of the Southern Province as follows : 


The European settlements of Blantyre, Zomba, Mlanje, Cholo, Makolongwe and other places 
make an entirely different world here from that of the Natives who live up country. In twenty 
years’ time, however, these will have the same thing to meet that we are meeting now. 

In two directions we have been successful : 

1. We have supplied this growing civilized community with trained artisans, clerks, educated 
native overseers of plantations, etc., who are taking no small part in the development of their country. 

2. We have saved the country from requiring to introduce Indian or Chinese skilled labour and in 
its place have trained our own Natives to do the work. 

This is our policy in the industrial training of the Natives here—to enable them to meet the 
coming developments of Native life on civilized lines. 


THE UNITED FREE CuuRCH OF ScoTLAND MIssIon 


The Mission of the United Free Church of Scotland in Northern Nyasaland, with 
its extensions in Northern Rhodesia and Tanganyika, has been remarkably effective 


NYASALAND 205 


in the improvement of Native life. Started fifty years ago under the inspiration of 
Livingstone and carried on throughout half a century under the leadership of the 
famous Laws of Livingstonia, the Mission has been gradually but certainly changing 
the barbarous and primitive Africans into better organized communities whose 
knowledge of civilization and Christianity is bringing to them health, habits of 
industry, freedom from fear and faith in a God of love. This notable service has 
been rendered practically without the aid either of economic or government concerns, 
which in most colonies have rendered much help directly or indirectly. 

The United Free Church of Scotland has supplied its missionaries, both men and 
women, with large sums of money through all the years of devoted and wise work. 
The last report shows a staff of 42 missionaries and appropriations amounting to 
£16,500 per annum for the men’s work and over £5,200 for the women’s. Altogether 
there are 848 schools with 45,000 pupils and 1,700 teachers. The five stations 
in Nyasaland have a total of 401 schools with 20,000 pupils and 880 teachers. 
Kach station represents both a type and an extent of activity that merit description. 
Unfortunately the facts are not available for all of the stations. The two main 
types of stations are represented by the Livingstonia Institution, directly under 
the leadership of Dr. Laws, and the varied work at Loudon, created through 
the inspiration of Dr. Donald Fraser and his wife, who is a capable physician. It 
will be noted that the Mission in Northern Nyasaland began its work among 
primitive people and continued single-handed with a responsibility for every phase 
of Native life even to this day. Through its influence tribal wars have been 
eliminated and hostile tribes have learned to live together. Diseases are being 
controlled, some improvements in methods of agriculture have been effected. 
Homes and family life have been improved. Healthful recreations are being intro- 
duced and the oppression of paganism is being replaced by a religion of justice and 
goodwill. There are crudities in the work. Supervision is by no means as regular 
or as extensive as required. There are limitations of staff and of funds. The 
mission authorities both at home and in the field are aware of these defects. 
Their continuation for the present is justified by the tremendous responsibility of a 
Mission working alone without help from Government among people who are depend- 
ing directly upon those whom they have learned to trust. 


Livingstonia Institution 

The station, known through the whole Mission as “The Institution,” is immensely 
more than a school. It is an educational and religious community of Native people, 
under the leadership of devoted men and women from Scotland. Practically every 
essential phase of community life has been realized in well-organized departments 
with staff, equipment and buildings that are more and more creating influences for 
the evolution of Northern Nyasaland. In the course of time this wonderful Institution 
will be the means of supplying both the machinery and the ideals of a Christian 
civilization. So varied is the work of the Institution as to make adequate descrip - 
tion almost impossible. So amazing and significant is the organization as to warrant 

H2 


206 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


extended presentation, which is herewith added, as it has been skilfully prepared 
by the Rev. F. Ashcroft, one of the Secretaries of the Foreign Missions Committee 
of the United Free Church, who has recently visited the Mission : 


General Situation.—The station of Livingstonia is situated on a plateau about 3,000 feet above 
Lake Nyasa, which it overlooks. The plateau, about two miles square, is overlooked by mountains 
rising to the height of 7,000 feet above the lake level. A narrow valley separates the plateau from 
the mountain ridge and makes it practically a little kingdom by itself. The mission land all 
round extends to the shore on one side and to the tops of the mountains on the other, covering 
thousands of acres. Much ofit is unsuitable for cultivation, but it supplies timber for the Institution. 
By a scheme of afforestation, Dr. Laws is planting cedars, junipers, mahoganies and other timber 
trees in thousands, which by and by should be a most valuable asset in the estate. The plateau is 
without streams, and was formerly dependent upon the rainfall for its supply, but Dr. Laws, to the 
astonishment of the Natives, has brought water in pipes across the valley and so secured an abundant 
supply. The soil of the plateau is poor and foodstuffs have to be brought up from the surrounding 
country, but Dr. Laws has made this as easy as possible by a series of good roads, running to the 
shore as well as to the north and south. The result is a capacious station at a height suitable for 
Europeans, in which the training of the Christian youth of the country can be carried on in comfort 
and peace. 

The Buildings.—The buildings are numerous and increasing year by year: most of them of bricks 
made by laborers trained by the missionaries. Dr. Laws’s house is a fine example of stone work, 
the stones being quarried and cut by men trained by the staff. The most important are the houses 
of the Scottish staff, the hospital, the industrial blocks and the farmstead. The church, of stone 
and brick, is steadily rising and its walls are now 6 feet high. The educational block has not yet 
been begun, and the school work is still being carried on in the old cramped building which serves 
for a church, Water and electric light are laid on to all the houses and workshops, and the latter 
get their power from the dynamos driven by water. The numerous roads and avenues, often 
crowded with students or workpeople, with occasionally a motor bicycle rushing past, suggest an 
up-to-date South African township rather than a mission station in the bush. 

Industrial Work.—The industrial side, as was to be expected under a man of Dr. Laws’s practical 
bent, has developed wonderfully. The Carpenters’ Department is perhaps the most important 
from the educational standpoint. The shop, with its up-to-date machinery and its 80 benches, at 
which 40 or 50 young apprentices are at work on planks that have been cut out of great trunks of 
trees at the sawmill by water power, is a place to which one would like to be constantly returning. 
Doors and window frames, all sorts of furniture, including tables with beautiful inlaid tops, are being 
turned out as fast as possible and yet never fast enough to overtake the needs of the expanding 
station and the orders in the order book. The Building Department, with a church on hand and an 
educational block to follow, not to speak of other buildings, is almost equally important. The 
quarry where stone is being blasted and cut ; the sheds where the masons are shaping the stones 
for building and monumental purposes ; the brick kiln for firing the bricks that are made by the 
thousand ; the new buildings on whose construction the apprentices are employed, all call for far 
more time than the visitor can give them. The Engineering Department, responsible for the water- 
works and electric plant and turbines and machinery for the other shops, may claim to be more 
important still. Its shop, full of coils of wire and tubing and of tools and implements and motor 
bikes and bush cars waiting to be repaired, with its furnace and the pleasant sound of the hammer 
upon red-hot iron, fascinated almost as much as the smithy of boyhood. The Printing Depart- 
ment, with its up-to-date printing and its storerooms full of clearly printed school books and hymn 
books, was a delight to visit. The apprentices, as it happened, were all busy with a translation of 
the Epistle to the Romans into Winyamangya. 

Farming and Forestry—The Farming and Forestry Department seemed to me to be scattered 
over all the surrounding hills and valleys. Here behind the plateau are plantations of timber. At 


NYASALAND 207 


the lake shore are cotton and cocoa trees and bananas and rice. At Mburunji are fresh plantations 
and fields of wheat, mealies, beans and rice. I have not seen nearly all of the 50,000 acres of the 
mission estate nor the productive work that has been begun in many places. The Department is 
represented on the plateau by the homestead, with its large byres for the cattle. The flour mill is 
busy, working at present night and day to meet a growing demand for its beautiful white flour, and 
the cotton cleaner is busy preparing the cotton for the market. 

Other Activities —The Tailoring and Boot Repairing Departments are on a smaller scale, but are 
quite useful at a station so far away from shops and stores, The Store is also a very useful institution, 
for it contains Manchester cotton goods and the miscellaneous odds and ends required by the Native 
community, It represents the progress the Natives are making in civilization, for it indicates a 
departure from primitive nakedness to the comfort and decency of civilized dress. Besides, the 
Store pays better than any other department, and it is due to it that the industrial part of the 
Institution generally closes with a credit balance, The Book Store is separate and on a smaller 
scale. Books in the vernaculars at present are either Bibles or hymn books and school books. A 
few English books, dictionaries, ete., are stocked and sold. 

Finance.—I was glad to conclude from a somewhat hurried inspection of the accounts that the 
principal departments are this year, as last, paying their way, and that the Institution, on the 
industrial side, is likely to close the year with a surplus, 

The Hospital—The Gordon Memorial Hospital consists of a central block containing the dis- 
pensary and operating theatre and two separate wards for male and female patients. It occupies 
a fine situation on the plateau, and is a large, well-equipped, attractive set of buildings. It ministers 
to the needs of the whole district as well as to those of the community gathered on the plateau. 

Educational Work.—The educational work is still waiting for the erection of the new block, 
which, if plans are carried out, will be a useful and handsome building, Meanwhile the students 
continue to meet in the premises which have long served as both church and school. The educational 
work falls into five parts—the Primary School, the Middle School, the Normal School, the Girls’ 
School, and the Theological School. The Primary School with Standards I, II and III is really 
the village school for the plateau. It is attended largely by local boys anxious to learn a little 
English. The Middle School, Standards IV, V and VI, gives a more complete ordinary education 
in English and is attended by boys sent up from the various stations who are boarders during the 
term. Students must have passed through the Middle School before they are allowed to enter the 
Normal, The Normal School gives a two years’ course for teachers, The staff for these three schools 
at present consists of three European teachers assisted by Native teachers. Considering the number 
of village schools in the mission and the crying need for better trained teachers for them, the number 
of students in the normal classes seemed to me disappointingly small. 

There was a special course consisting of 20 older men, brought in from some of the village schools 
to be given help in passing the teacher’s Higher Certificate Examination. The Girls’ School included 
quite a number of Christian girls, who are getting here the kind of training one would like to see 
carried on at each of the central stations. I was only able to spend a few minutes in the school, 
but I was impressed by the order that prevailed, the cheerful air of the schoolroom, the modest 
demeanour of the scholars, the sweetness of their singing and the neatness of their sewing. The 
Theological Classes were not meeting this term, but I was glad to learn that during the past session 
7 theological and 15 evangelistic students were in regular attendance and that they made satis- 
factory progress in the class exercises and in the practical work of village preaching each week-end. 


This comprehensive summary merely suggests the real influence of the Institution 
and its distinguished founder. Inadequate are the passing references to such achieve- 
ments as the winding highway up the mountain side, the afforestation, the harnessing 
of the mountain streams to produce power and light for the mission station and the 
Native people. But far more important than these nature conquests is the con- 
trolling purpose of human welfare. Nowhere is this more evident than in the careful 


208 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


record kept of the condition and progress of Native men and women striving to enter 
the Christian Chureh. The real Laws and the fundamental purpose of Livingstonia 
are revealed only to those who have been privileged to understand the painstaking 
care with which this great. man records in his own handwriting every indication of 
character and spiritual progress of each Native man and woman. Nor is the record 
limited to church creed, for it includes every influence that contributes to the develop- 
ment of these primitive people. 

It will be the crowning feature of Dr. Laws’s magnificent service if while he is still 
in the fullness of vigour he is able to place his great work on a foundation which will 
ensure its stability and advance in future years. No one man will again carry the 
burden Dr. Laws has borne. 

With all that has been accomplished there are limitations and omissions. For- 
tunately they are recognized by the Institution and with the increase of funds and 
staff they will be corrected. The more important of these are the need of relating 
the splendid industrial training to village handicraft and the extension of agricultural 
influence to the gardens and fields of the people. 

Careful work is being done in teacher-training and in organizing the work of 
supervision by the Native teachers. 'Two of the Scottish missionaries also visit 
the out-stations during the vacation of the central schools. There are girls’ schools 
at all but one of the mission stations at which definite instruction is given in 
hygiene and mothercraft. 


Loudon Station 


The work and organization of the activities at Loudon are in striking contrast with 
those of the Livingstonia Institution. Here the stress has been on the extension of the 
influence of Christianity and civilization to many communities distributed over miles 
of territory. While the number of buildings and the plan of organization are notable 
achievements, they have been subordinated to the extension of character and spiritual 
influences almost to danger point. Reports indicate, however, that the influence of 
Loudon on every phase of Native life is real and abiding. The Native people, far and 
wide, have felt the touch of human and Christian service. So wide, indeed, is the in- 
fluence as to overwhelm the available staff and its equipment. The new determination 
of Government to give substantial assistance to Native education brings needed assur- 
ance to those who are distressed by their seemingly over-abundant success. Without 
such help from Government, or those in Europe or America who are vitally concerned 
in Africa, it seems inevitable that the remarkable influence of this fine station must be 
drastically limited. As it has not been possible for any member of the Commission 
to prepare an adequate presentation of this interesting work, it has seemed most 
worth while to incorporate the following vivid description written by Dr. Donald 
Fraser, the present Director of the work. While this procedure is contrary to the 
usual method of this Report, it seems emphatically justified in this instance : 


Growth and Present Standing.—Loudon station, which was opened in 1902, works among a section 
of the Ngoni tribe, and is responsible for an area about 90 miles long and 30 broad, with a population 
of some 80,000, about 30 to the square mile. There were about 1,020 villages in the area five years 


NYASALAND 209 


~ 


ago ; now there are many more, as the villages have broken into hamlets. The Mission has always 
had a recognized national position, as through it the tribal life was led out of war into peaceable 
settlement ; the schools have the backing of the chiefs and are recognized as tribal possessions, 
The people asked for schools not because of thirst for education or evangelization, but because 
education increased the market value of a laborer and the presence of a teacher ina group of villages 
made intercourse with the Government or with European travellers more easy and confident. 

The station has now about 40 large and small brick buildings—two or three dwelling houses for 
missionaries, a hospital with accommodation for 24 patients, a school built round a quadrangle, 
offices, stores, a carpenter’s shop and round brick houses for boarders and other Natives, built like 
Native huts but wiih doors, windows, fireplaces and in some cases additional rooms, The dominating 
building is the cruciform church, capable of holding 2,500 people. The normal staff—which is 
seldom complete for any long period—consists of two European married missionaries (the wife of 
one, being a doctor, carries on the hospital work), a nurse, and another woman worker, 

Statistics.—There are 3,000 church members, 1,660 catechumens and about 2,000 hearers 
connected with the Mission. Church members must send their children to school, pay their fees 
and buy their books. There are about 9,000 pupils—11 per cent. of the population—in the 117 
schools under the control of Loudon station, The ages of the pupils vary from 5 to 30 years of age, 
especially in the districts where schools have been only recently opened. 


Village Schools.—Most of the schools are 3 or 4. miles apart. They are divided, for purposes of 
supervision, into 6 districts, in each of which it is the aim to have a Native minister or trained 
evangelist supported by the people. Each district is sub-divided in smaller areas with 5 or 6 schools 
under the oversight of a catechist. Owing to the claims of the central schools for the better trained 
teachers few of the catechists have gone beyond Standard VII, but they are men of sterling 
character, and are able to relate the schools to the village life. The European missionary tours 
during the school session constantly, visiting each school once or twice in the year. 

The people now erect their own school house, buy their books, pay fees, feed the stranger teachers, 
make the simple school furniture, keep the grounds tidy, erect latrines and make roads from the 
villages to the schools. The Mission pays the teachers and provides a little school material, 


Lime Table and Curriculum.—The work of the week for each class is mapped out in a careful 
pamphlet. A school roll is kept and the names are called each day. A Teachers’ Handbook has been 
prepared and is just coming into use, with a number of practical school rules about the building, 
sanitation and cleanliness, There are lessons in this book to be given during the week on the com- 
munity affairs, local geography, conduct, ete. The usual rough distribution of the day is from 7 to 
9.30, junior school, consisting of the syllable and primer classes ; 10 to 12.30, senior school, consisting 
of the three reading classes. The English school, where there is one, is held in the afternoon. At 
Loudon station the hours are 8 to 11 for the advanced school, 1 to 3.30 for the junior school. In 
addition there is outside work to be done such as school repairs and clearing the grounds. The time 
table is somewhat determined by the demands of herding, ete. 


Most of the village schools only teach vernacular reading, writing on slates, and arithmetic up 
to the simple money rules, in addition to Bible lessons. A vast proportion of the pupils are in the 
syllable stage; many never get beyond it. Several factors militate against normal progress : 
irregularity of attendance ; lack of individual attention from the teacher ; lack of method ; lack of 
application by the pupils; the long vacation during the rains, Some advance has been made in 
teaching the rules of arithmetic through concrete things. The use of print letters has made the 
writing easier and better. Thousands of people are now able to read, but beyond the Bible (the 
New Testament is now available in the local vernacular, Old Testament work has still to be done 
from the Zulu Bible), there is little literature available. There is need for attractive educative 
books if reading is to be used as an avenue towards fuller life. 

There are about twelve centers with elementary English teaching. A few pupils, mostly boys, 
have got as far as Standard ITI in English. At Loudon there is a more advanced school with about 
100 pupils ranging from the highest vernacular reading class up to Standard VII in English. Of 


210 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


these 24 are boy boarders who live on the station, and a few are teachers from the surrounding 
village schools. 


Training of Teachers——There are on the Loudon staff eleven schoolmasters and teachers who 
have had a year’s training at the Livingstonia Institution ; 16 vernacular teachers who, after passing 
Standard VII have had the same; 386 who are in Standard VII; 74 in Standard IV ; and a large 
body of men in Standards IV and V who act as monitors, Teachers are rotated, so that each year 
some of them may be near enough to get further instruction at a central school or at the station 
school in Loudon, Here a teachers’ school is held for a month each year. Before each term the 
whole body of teachers spend a day or two in Loudon for stimulus and instruction, with special 
emphasis on details of teaching method. The rates of pay for teachers vary. The standard pay 
for monitors is 4s. a month, which is the pay for unskilled labour in the tribe. A head teacher 
in Standard VI or VII gets 8s., a ‘“‘ vernacular teacher *» 125. 6d, The teacher trained at the 
Institution gets from 14s. to £2. 


Finance.—The yearly grant received from the Mission for education at Loudon is £420. In 
addition about £150 is received in school fees and £99 as a government grant, which works out at 
about 24d. per pupil. The fees are small, varying from a penny to a shilling per session according 
to the standing of the pupil. The fees are largely paid in foodstuffs ; as there is no European market 
the sale of these is always a difficulty. 


Vocational Training.—There are few vocations open to residents in Ngoniland beyond that 
of teaching. A few score of lads are employed as storekeepers and hawkers by the trading com- 
panies, and a few clerks and capitaos by the Government, as well as a very few builders and car- 
penters and sawyers who are irregularly employed by various Europeans. But for the thousands 
of pupils in school there is no training towards any vocation beyond that of teachers and the general 
life of good citizens. All specialized training is centred in the Institution. 

There is no hope at present of training men to be agriculturalists who can make a living by the sale 
of their produce. The lack of communication with markets, and the long expensive carriage, make 
any discovered product of the soil unremunerative to the people. Besides, the land is too poor to 
tempt planters. There is abundance of cattle, but diseases, such as East Coast fever, have greatly 
diminished the herds and closed the land for years against the exporting of cattle. At present all 
we can do is to teach the people how to cultivate their plots better, so as to ward off the periodical 
famines and not to impoverish the soil. 

One result of the constant teaching of the missionaries is that the people have added cassava 
gardens to their maize plots, so that when maize fails they can fall back on cassava. There has 
also been a considerable enrichment of the variety of vegetables and fruits. Twenty-five years ago 
the only banana tree in Ngoniland was at the mission station at Hora. To-day most villages have 
bananas and plantains. Mangoes and other fruit trees have been introduced and multiplied. 

Some years ago community gardens were started in connection with all the schools, which were 
hoed and cultivated by the villagers under the direction of the headman. About 100 of these were 
opened. The produce was reserved for the hungry season, and provided a reserve supply which, 
when sold, produced a considerable income for the schools. 

Two or three progressive lads have ventured to get oxen trained on the station, and one has been 
doing useful haulage with his beasts. Some others have fertilized their gardens with manure and 
village rubbish, and it is hoped that the good results obtained may demonstrate to others how to 
fertilize the soil. For all this service the schools have been far less useful than they should have 
been. 

Apart from the work of the Institution, a number of lads have been taught sawing, carpentry, 
brick moulding, building. Four or five of the teachers have opened saw pits of their own and have 
been so successful that most of the Europeans in the district now buy their boards direct from the 
Native sawpit owners, Quite a number of self-taught lads have little carpenters’ shops where they 
make beds, tables, doors, chairs, etc., for their fellow villagers. Their tools are often very primitive 


NYASALAND 211 


and show some ingenuity in copying our tools. This independent effort is being steadily 
encouraged. 

Care has been taken to preserve and stimulate Native music, Nearly all the hymns in use are 
set to Native tunes. Prizes are given for the best compositions and a considerable body of very 
characteristic Native school songs and hymn tunes are now in use. 


Dr. Donald Fraser continues : 


It is generally felt that the Mission has now passed the pioneer stage of education, and that 
while the schools must follow their moral and religious aims intensively there is large opportunity 
given us for new developments to make them better servants of the people. 

1. Improvement of Central Schools—The central schools should be made more effective. This 
ean only be done by having more highly trained teachers and better furnishings. To provide these 
the Mission looks to Government to give a considerable increase in grant. As this is purely an 
educational development, the duty of providing the increased expenditure is a government function 
rather than a church one, Strong central schools would react on the village schools and give a 
stimulus to real education. 

2. Agricultural Demonstrators—Te increase the wealth, comfort and capacity of the people 
our schools should react more directly and strongly on the agriculture of the people. One does 
not think so much of producing new things for the European market as of raising the standard of 
civilization of the people. We could do something had we an agricultural Native demonstrator 
for each one of our areas. He could give lessons in the schools on caring for stock, from poultry to 
cattle, on agriculture, etc., and give demonstrations through our community gardens, which would be 
more effective than many hours of theoretical teaching. He should be trained at the Institution 
with this end in view, not to produce marketable products so much as to preserve and improve 
what the people have. To maintain a group of six demonstrators in the Loudon area might mean 
about £100 a year. This, too, should be government expenditure, 

3. Native Leader of Industry —-We would be greatly helped also could we have a Native leader 
of industry in each area, trained at the Institution, not in the elaborate work necessary for Europeans, 
but in the simple needs of Native life, such as house and school building, the making of chairs, doors, 
windows and such like, 


THe Dutcu RerorMep CHURCH or, SouTu AFRICA 


The Dutch Reformed Church began its work in N yasaland in 1888 when the Rev. 
Andrew C. Murray, joined next year by Rev. T. C. Flok, started the first mission 
station in Central Angoniland at Mvera, 25 miles to the south-west of Lake N yasa. 
It is significant of the friendly relations which have obtained at all times between 
the Dutch and the Scottish Churches that it was at the special invitation of the Free 
Church of Scotland that the Dutch missionaries came to Nyasaland. Indeed for a 
number of years the Dutch missionaries were a branch, as it were, of the United 
Free Church Mission, separating with mutual goodwill a few years ago. As a matter 
of fact there has never been any separation in doctrine, spirit or methods of work, 
and this year the converts of the Church of Scotland at Blantyre, the United Free 
Church at Livingstonia and the Dutch Reformed Church are uniting to form the 
Bantu Church of Nyasaland. 

For reasons which will soon become apparent the Mission has been wonderfully 
successful, and to-day there are 12 main stations with a staff of 68 Kuropean 
missionaries, and 713 out-schools occupied by 1,454 evangelists and teachers, where 


212 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


38,384 children are being taught. The Dutch Reformed Church is conservative 
in admitting to church membership, so that the 8,342 Natives baptized and the 6,224 
catechumens preparing for baptism must be regarded as a low estimate of their 
religious work. This conservatism is again apparent in the fact that it is only in 
1925 that the first two evangelists are to be ordained after twenty years’ service 
in the mission. 

In the eyes of the Dutch Reformed Church, in South Africa and elsewhere, the 
education of the Natives is a matter to be proceeded with cautiously and the school 
is always the handmaid of religion. The main object of their schools is ‘‘ to instil 
a thorough knowledge of the Word of God into the minds of the scholars, old and 
young, and to raise a Bible-reading people.”” This fact will explain some of the pro- 
cedure adopted in the mission schools. 

The central station is Mkhoma, about 72 miles from the Lake on the high land 
towards the west. No more suitable place for a head station could be imagined. 
It is healthily situated in the center of the field occupied by the Mission, and is 
comparatively easily reached by steamer from Domira Bay and by road from Zomba. 
In addition to the large church, modern school building, and comfortable mission 
houses, there are the hospital, store, printing press, industrial rooms, and most 
important of all, perhaps, a model Native village. 

A feature of the Dutch Mission is its insistence on agriculture and simple village 
industries. In these two important respects it has not its superior in all the Nyasa- 
land schools visited by the Commission. Some of the missionaries were farmers 
in South Africa before they entered mission work; all without exception have grown 
up on farms as boys, and they have transplanted to Nyasaland the adaptability and 
courage which characterized their forefathers. The agriculture is not the small 
vegetable garden so often seen in African missions, but the 30-acre wheat field, the 
even larger maize field, the cane field, the orchards, the arrowroot plantation, the 
flower and vegetable garden of a real farm. The mistake of making the agriculture 
more refined than the Natives are able to carry out on their own land has not been 
made. While the possibilities of new crops, new fruits and improved types of stock 
are always being considered, the aim has to be to produce something which the 
Natives can themselves imitate successfully in their own homes. 

The same practical outlook is seen in the industries taught. Instead of elaborate 
woodwork shops and the teaching of industries on a scale which almost compels 
the Native to go to the European center to find an opportunity of practising his 
craft, the work at Mkhoma is planned to fit the men and women to become home 
workers. Nowhere in Nyasaland has the Commission seen a finer exhibit of home 
industries. Here were specimens of wood and iron work, bark cloth, wool and linen- 
weaving, basket and mat work of at least twenty kinds; leather work, including 
bootmaking, sandal and harness making, the treatment of the skins of animals, soap 
and oil making, bricks and tiles, machine and hand sewing and many other kinds of 
village industry. Natives are taught to use, and use better, the materials at their 
doors. Thus in the spinning-rooms every conceivable circular object seems to have 


NYASALAND 213 


been pressed into service as a spinning wheel, the most common being the wheels 
of old bicycles: There was only one complete and modern spinning wheel. 

Another piece of equally successful informal education is seen in the model 
Christian village. One of the first things that the Native Christian desires is to 
possess a better type of dwelling than his one-roomed hut. Working upon the 
idea that the wise pedagogic step is to improve what the people have already, the 
missionaries have shown the Natives how a model village may be laid out. A site 
has been obtained on the gentle slope from a mountain so that there will be natural 
drainage. Instead of one-roomed huts the missionary has taught them how to build 
two and three-roomed square huts out of pisé de terre with thatch roofs. These have 
been arranged in straight rows sufficiently far apart to allow of a little privacy. 
A special part of the land has been set aside for sanitary purposes, but the people 
have not advanced sufficiently far to use latrines. 

Among other informal educational agencies there is the Girls’ Home where a 
number of girls are trained in house craft, such as washing, ironing, cooking, making 
starch, soap and candles and, generally speaking, are being prepared to become 
suitable wives for educated Christian Natives. They live in improved Native fashion, 
cooking their own food and sleeping five to eight in a hut. 

The Native store is also highly educational. Here for the first time the Native 
gets his idea of European or foreign trading. He learns to appreciate the honesty 
and yet business-like attitude of a good trader—the value of cash payments, the fact 
that one gets nothing for nothing, the right to courteous treatment and to fair weight. 
Every week there is a large open-air market to which hundreds of Natives come to do 
a little trading. Here are sold the products of the farms and the goods made by 
students and others. Very useful work is being done at the Printing Press. It has 
been possible to publish a 240-page volume of Bible stories at a cost of 104d. per volume 
and to retail it at 1s., instead of 2s. 4d. for the imported volume. It is not possible 
to estimate the great influence of the Church. The whole of the work of the mission 
centers round the religious life of the people. The important hospital and clinic 
is in process of much needed reorganization. More could be done in the training of 
Native nurses and dispensers. 

The admission requirement for the Normal School is a pass in Standard III. 
The pupils come in for a year, then go out and teach for two years, come back again 
for one year, go out for two, come back for a third year and then pass out altogether. 
This plan is good, inasmuch as it gives the pupil contact with the work of the schools, 
but one year is probably too little for a start. The plan followed in Natal, whereby 
the student came for two years and then went out and taught before taking his third 
year, would probably be found more suitable. The Normal School building is a large 
well-built cool structure with proper lighting and ventilation. For benches the 
pupils sit on built-up brick seats. These are convenient but serve to emphasize the 
false idea that school work means sitting still. The pupils are well clad and well 
fed. The third year students receive salaries varying from 25s. to 28s. a quarter, 
while the others are educated and boarded free of charge. 


214 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The staff of the Normal School consists of two very well qualified Europeans and 
seven Native assistants. The methods of instruction are rather formal and stereo- 
typed. New methods will doubtless soon be introduced. 

An interesting feature of the work of this mission is the employment of Natives 
as school inspectors. These men are generally teachers of large schools who visit 
neighboring schools on Saturdays or other holidays and advise the teachers. They 
also conduct vacation classes during the school holidays. 


Tae Montrort Marist Fatuers’ Mission 


The Marist Fathers maintain a valuable educational work in Nyasaland. The 
facts available do not give an adequate account of their important work. The Mission 
started in 1901, has ten principal mission stations, 32 out-stations and 380 village schools. 
The staff consists of 26 Fathers, 8 Brothers and 16 Sisters. The value of the plant is 
estimated at £14,300 ; the appropriations in 1923 were £8,600 ; the Native fees £250. 
The government grant-in-aid was £130. In addition to the village schools, with 
18,000 pupils and 285 unqualified Native teachers, who are visited monthly, there is a 
seminary with two Europeans and one Native teacher and 38 pupils, and a training 
school for teachers, with 118 pupils, one European and three Native teachers. ‘There 
are also a central working school for Native girls and two houses for half-caste boys 
and girls. The languages used in instruction are the vernacular, English and Latin. 
The literature in the vernacular consists of catechism, hymn and prayer books, 
selections from the Old and New Testament, a small reader and grammars in the 
vernacular for English and Latin. A translation of the Bible in Chinyanja is proposed ; 
a book on folk-lore is in preparation with Native contributors. 


Tue Waite Fatuers’ Mission 


The educational work of the White Fathers is widely known throughout East 
Africa. While it is not as extensive in Nyasaland as elsewhere, the schools have con- 
tributed much to the development of the Natives. The work was begun in 1889 in 
the Upper Shiré. After eighteen months it was discontinued and again reopened in 
1902. The staff under the direction of the Bishop includes 20 Fathers, 6 Lay Brothers 
and 5 Sisters. There are altogether 61 European teachers and 158 Natives, of whom 
43 are untrained. The Mission has 191 schools with a total number of 9,000 pupils. 
There are two institutions for the training of teachers, with an average attendance of 
45; five industrial and five central schools with 165 pupils. It is unfortunate that 
this important work cannot be adequately described. 


Soutu ArricA GENERAL MIssIon 


This Mission, which has extensive work in other parts of Africa, reports 60 out- 
stations with 70 teachers under the direction of two European and two Native 
inspectors. The total number of pupils is 3,500, with an average attendance of 2,300. 
The Mission has a teacher-training school with 40 boys and a boarding school with 35 


NYASALAND 215 


girls. The Nyasaland Code is followed, and the Government give a grant of £50 per 
annum. The Mission considers that the schools are far too numerous, but the people 
do not seem willing to go to school beyond their own village. 


THE SEVENTH Day ADVENTISTS 


This Mission, which has a number of stations in the Protectorate, reports 64 schools 
with an attendance of over 5,000 pupils. There is an institute for the training of 
teachers, with about 37 pupils. The educational staff consists of seven Europeans 
and over 100 Natives. 


‘INDUSTRIAL MISSIONS 


There are three organizations near Blantyre known as Industrial Missions. They 
are corporate bodies independent of the control of the regular denominations in Europe 
or America. 

The Zambezi Industrial Mission is said to own 31,000 acres of land and maintains 
almost 100 elementary schools with a total attendance of about 4,000 pupils. 

The Nyasa Industrial Mission owns 900 acres of land and reports 69 schools with 
an enrollment of about 4,000 pupils. 

The Baptist Industrial Mission of Scotland owns plantations and reports 32 
schools. 

The three missions are said to offer Natives training in the cultivation of their land 
and some handicraft. 


IIT. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The inevitable conclusion of the facts presented concerning Nyasaland is, first, that 
the Colony has great resources which have not been adequately developed, and, second, 
that the million and a quarter Native people, with capacities above the average, 
have not been able to take full advantage of the unusually effective type of mission 
education provided for them, almost entirely independent of government aid. Nyasa- 
land, with greater possibilities than any African Colony of equal size, is therefore the 
lowest in output and the poorest colony in Africa. It is generally agreed that the 
most immediate cause of this unfortunate condition is in the absence of adequate 
internal transportation and the failure to provide satisfactory exit to the sea. 
This problem demands the vigorous consideration of the best British statesmanship. 
Until it is solved al] activities in Nyasaland will be seriously handicapped and 
the natural results of efforts, whether governmental, economic or missionary, will be 
largely nullified. 

A second reason for the condition of Nyasaland is in the failure of Government to 
organize and correlate the splendid educational work of the missions with the various 
phases of colonial life. Missions have been permitted to struggle alone in their 
respective fields. Latterly a negligible appropriation has been given to them, but there 
has been no Department nor Director of Education to confer with the Missions, to 


216 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


encourage them in their work, or to help them relate their influences to each other or 
to colonial needs. An education related to the health of the people, to their agricul- 
tural and industrial possibilities, to their family life and their character development, 
would undoubtedly help the Colony to improve its status among the colonies of 
Africa. Through the increased knowledge and skill of the Native people, coopera- 
tive arrangements could be developed that would have a good measure of success 
even under the present handicaps of poor transportation and separation from the 
sea. No Colony in Africa offers to its Government such quantity and quality of 
educational work as that maintained in Nyasaland by the mission societies. These 
emphatic references to Government must not exclude sincere appreciation for the 
vital services rendered by the British Government in the establishment of justice 
and peace and in the promotion of many essentials to the welfare of the people. In 
comparison with non-British Colonies Nyasaland ranks high in provisions for colonial 
development and the betterment of the people. 

It is not the function of this Report to make recommendations as to such economic 
provisions and transportation. The conditions have been presented, and it is 
hoped that all possible haste may be made in supplying the vital economic needs of 
the Colony. Inthemeantime—and, indeed, immediately—it is possible for Government 
to enter the field of education, so that present conditions may be corrected and the 
Native people prepared for the great developments that are bound to come. The 
general chapters of this Report present the type of education and administration 
suitable to most African Colonies. The special needs of Nyasaland are suggested 
in the following recommendations : 


1. The first provision for education that should be made by the Government is 
the appointment of a Director of Education and the organization of a Department 
of Education, whose first duty shall be the evaluation of the education activities 
now maintained in the Colony. It is urged that the rank of the Director and the 
position of the Department shall be equal to that of other important officers and 
departments of Government. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of the services of such an official. 
It is as true of education as of government and of business, that what is every body’s 
business is nobody’s business. Though the funds required for an Education 
Department would probably constitute in the initial stages a rather large proportion 
of the total grant available for education, experience proves conclusively that it is 
wise and economic to encourage such an expenditure. To refuse to do so would 
be to jeopardize the healthy development of work. The value of a Department of 
Education with a qualified Director is now past question in British Colonies in Africa. 


2. Coincident with the appointment of the Director, Government should establish 
an Advisory Board of Native Education to consist of representatives of the Govern- 
ment, the settlers and the missionaries. As soon as possible, Native representation 
should also be provided. The appointment of missionary members should generally 
be in proportion to the number of their schools which meet the Government require- 


NYASALAND 217 
ments for the grant-in-aid. The small mission societies should combine to secure 
the election of a representative on the Board. 


3. The most important provision of all is that of additional financial support 
from Government. 

Appropriation to assist the missions in their wise and heroic endeavors would 
have immediate results for the good of the Colony. The appointment of a Director 
of Education and an Advisory Board would guarantee the best use of such 
appropriations. Among the facts to be considered in determining the financial 
requirements are, first, that there are almost 250,000 Native children of school 
age; second, that Native revenue amounts to a quarter of a million pounds ; 
third, that missions are spending over £16,000 annually, without crediting them with 
the value of their great personal services ; fourth, that money spent on education 
adapted to the needs of the people supplements expenditures for the health and 
agricultural departments and greatly lessens the necd for police and military costs. 


4. Provision for sympathetic supervision and friendly visitation of all schools 
by both Government and mission officers would have the most beneficial effects. 
This applies especially to the small out-schools, of which there are reported to be 
more than 2,000 in Nyasaland. Without supervision, these schools may be either 
futile or centers of unrest. Under the guidance and stimulation of friend] y Visitation 
they can become centers for the dissemination of preventive medicine, the encourage- 
ment of better agriculture and the development of a cooperative interest in move- 
ments essential to the welfare of the Colony. The plan for the training and employ- 
ment of Native visiting teachers now being adopted in several African Colonies is 
strongly commended to both Government and missions in Nyasaland. 


5. The system of schools recommended is that now used in the Southern Province 
of Nyasaland by the Church of Scotland. It will be noted that this system provides 
four grades of schools, namely, a central school for the whole mission at the head 
station ; schools under European management at district stations as the centers of 
their own area; central village schools in districts where small schools are too 
numerous for the immediate supervision of the district stations; and village or 
bush schools giving a very elementary course. It is not expected that this complete 
system will be adopted by the smaller missions. Their needs will be simply met 
by the central station and the village schools. In the case of very small mission 
organizations it is urged that they shall depend upon the better equipped central 
schools of the larger missions for their supply of Native teachers. 

While Nyasaland does not yet require a central institution of colonial dimensions, 
it is necessary to have in mind the educational needs of those who have completed 
the training of the highest schools in the Colony, such as Livingstonia and Blantyre. 
The success of the South African Native College in training Natives for professional 
work points to the possibilities of a similar Institution in Nyasaland when the need 
arises. In the meantime, it will doubtless be necessary for Government} and 
missions to consider the type of provision needed for the few students who will be 


218 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


prepared to profit by education in the advanced schools of neighboring colonies. 
At the present time, the only school in East Africa which can be considered for 
such students is that of the Native College at Fort Hare, already mentioned. 


6. The objectives and adaptations of education required in Nyasaland are, in 
general, similar to those described at length in the chapter on that subject. The 
Colony is fortunate in the variety of mission education. Practically al] the objec- 
tives and adaptations have been realized in one or more of the schools of the Colony. 
Through the cooperation developed by the Director of Education and an Advisory 
Board, each of these schools will be able to make its contribution to the develop- 
ment of the Colony and the Native people. Government departments will give assist- 
ance along their respective lines. This applies especially to the departments of 
health, agriculture and public works. Government will make possible the organiza- 
tion of extension departments for the improvement of health, the stimulation of soil 
production and the enlargement of market facilities. In accordance with the 
convictions of British Colonial officers, every encouragement will be given to the 
effective recognition of religion as an essential of education. 


CHAPTER IX 
THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 


| Bis wealth of human interest which surrounds Zanzibar is equalled by the 
complexity of the educational problems of the Protectorate. Both are out of 
all proportion to the area or the population involved. As alike the meeting-place of 
Asia and Africa, the trial-ground of early colonizing enterprises and of empires that 
came and went, the base of Arab slave trade and the center from which some of the 
greatest travelers and missionaries pushed on into the heart of the Continent, Zanzibar 
attracts the eyes of all who turn towards Africa. To-day, shorn of territories on the 
mainland, released from allegiance to the Muscat Arabs and under the protection of 
Great Britain, the islands, with their conglomerate population of Arabs, Indians, 
freed slaves, Africans from the mainland and abori ginal tribes, present an educational 
situation which calls for study in the light of the best experience of other lands. Among 
peoples of diverse origin and language, devoid of the stimulus of national aspiration, 
or even of the normal African desire for education, with no uniting bond except a 
nominal Islam shot through with magic, lines of educational development and adapta- 
tion are not easy to find. In the light of the proposals now under the consideration 
of the Government the moment is opportune for cooperation in educational develop- 
ment. If the educational situation can be met in Zanzibar, it can be met anywhere. 
Part I of this chapter outlines the important facts concerning the country, the people 
and European organizations; Part II describes the educational situation; Part III 
summarizes the conclusions and recommendations arising out of the visit of the 
Commission. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


The Zanzibar Protectorate comprises the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. The 
former is situated in lat. 6° south and has an area of 640 square miles. It is between 
four and five times the size of the Isle of Wight or half that of Rhode Island. A 
channel over twenty-two miles wide at its narrowest part separates it from the mainland. 
It is the largest coral island on the African coast. Zanzibar Town strikes the traveler 
as the meeting-place of Asia and Africa. In the harbour are ships from East and West; 
large European steamers and the small Arab dhow which has carried the trade of the 
Indian Ocean between Africa, India, Persia and Arabia for many centuries. In the 
town itself many beautiful buildings show the wealth and good taste of former Arab 
merchant princes. To the north at a distance of some 30 miles lies the island of 
Pemba, having an area of 880 square miles or six times the size of the District of 
Columbia and more than three times the size of Malta. The annual rainfall is very 
heavy, being nearly 60 inches in Zanzibar and 88 inches in Pemba. The’ climate 
is trying to Europeans, 

219 


220 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


THE The Native population of the Protectorate has grown from 188,212 
PEOPLE in 1910 to 202,665. The non-Native population, including Europeans, 

Indians and other non-Native races, has increased from 8,987 to 14,125. The 
town of Zanzibar, which had 35,362 inhabitants in 1910, shows 38,713 in the 1924 census 
returns and, owing to recent influxes of Indians from the mainland, is believed to have 
now a population of 40,000. The annexed table of the Native census of Zanzibar 
Protectorate showing the number of huts, male and female adults, and male and female 
children, is of interest. 

















Huts Males Females Boys Girls Total 
Zanzibar Island -. 45,587 46,050 45,423 12,322 11,221 115,016 
Pemba Island -- 34,148 32,205 30,901 12,941 11,602 87,649 
Total Zot O54 Oo 78,255 76,324 25,263 22,823 202,665 


The Native population consists of mainland and other semi-African tribes and of 
the aboriginal tribes of the Sultanate in addition to the freed slaves, who still constitute 
a distinct element in the community. In 1811 and again in 1858 they were estimated 
as two-thirds of the population, but they are gradually dying out. 

Of the mainland tribes over seventy have been enumerated, of whom twenty are 
fairly numerous. The three most important in the economic life of the island are the 
Wanyamwezi, the Akamba and the Kikuyu. Unlike the tribes of Zanzibar and Pemba, 
the mainland tribes take kindly to such heavy manual labor as cleaning shambas and 
making roads. Many of them cannot be regarded as permanent settlers. They come to 
make money and return to the mainland, Few bring their wives ; this, and the fact 
that they have no headmen of their own in the Protectorate, sometimes causes friction 
with the local Natives. In religion they are generally pagan, though they readily 
embrace Christianity or Islam. 

The aboriginal tribes of the Sultanate are of no great antiquity. They have an 
Asiatic as well as an African origin and consist of mixed people who settled on the 
island at various times. Some tribal organization was built up by these conglomerate 
people, but under Arab and British rule it has gradually declined, and there is now 
little trace of it, though a good deal of tribal or clannish spirit is still to be observed. 
The Wahadimu, who live in the south and on the east of the Island, are a quiet,indus- 
trious and tractable people. 'The Wapemba are more independent and perhaps more 
enterprising ; the Watumbatu, who live on an island about a mile north-west of 
Zanzibar, are reserved and at times truculent. These tribes speak dialects which 
vary considerably and have also special dialects for witchcraft guilds and a form of 
speech for medicine men. 

Zanzibar may be said to be the home of Swahili, not in the sense that its oldest 
form is spoken there, but because the Zanzibar dialect, of which there are several 
varieties, has come to be known best owing to the writing of such men as Steere, 
Madan, Saccleux and to some extent Krapf, though his dictionary is mainly devoted 
to the Mombasa dialect. Inthe days of the opening up of Africa, explorers and traders 
generally made up their caravans in Zanzibar; thence porters and soldiers journeyed 


THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 221 


into the far interior, some of them remaining there and thus making Swahili a lingua 
Sranca understood, as Steere says, along the coasts of Madagascar and Arabia and in 
central or intertropical Africa as well as by the Sidis in India. The old classical or 
literary Swahili is known as Kingozi, but there are few specimens of it surviving except 
in poems, 


Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as land tenure in the islands, the value 
of the land being determined not by the soil but by its accessibility and the economic 
trees planted on it. Communal tenure is found among the three aboriginal tribes 
and on the land known as wanda, but no Natives have right to anything but the 
crops, the land being all the property of the Sultan. Prescriptive right cannot be 
acquired unless sixty years’ continuous and undi sputed ownership can be proved. 

There are no actual Native reserves, but as, with but one or two exceptions, the 
only Europeans living outside the towns are government officials, the districts are, in 
form, the nature of reserves. The small Indian shopkeeper has been among the Natives 
from time immemorial ; the only tribe which will not permit his settling among them 
is the Watumbatu. It may be observed that the Natives living farthest away from 
toads and easy means of communication are the most orderly and have the least 
crime. As to the occupations and industry of the people it is worth while to quote 
from a valuable memorandum written by Mr. Ingrams, one of the Assistant District 


Commissioners, who has made an exhaustive study of the life and customs of the 
people : 


The clove, introduced into Zanzibar about 1817, rapidly became the most important economic 
product of the Island, and in its cultivation most of the Arabs and many Natives are engaged. Apart 
from Swahilis the Native tribe most interested in the clove is the Wampemba, of whom many own 
small shambas. The Arab shambas, owing to the inability of the owners to adapt themselves to 
other than slave conditions, possibly aggravated by the too rapid abolition of slavery and to the 
Mohammedan law of inheritance, are undergoing a gradual process of disintegration, being bought 
or inherited in small parcels by others, ‘The one-man shamba will probably prove to be the saviour 
of the clove industry, 

The cultivation of the coconut in Zanzibar is of earlier date. Almost all the Natives own a few 
trees of which the fruit is used for food. In addition many Own small plantations. Unlike the 
clove, the crop of the coconut offers a regular, if small, quarterly income. By reason of the pre- 
cariousness of the clove crop it would be well if all Natives owned coconuts as well, or had some other 
crop to depend on in bad seasons. 

The Wahadimu as agriculturalists shine chiefly in the cultivation of Native crops of which 
they plant a great variety (cassava, sweet potatoes, chick peas, sorghum, millet, maize, rice and 
simsim are but a few), 

In old days, Pemba was the granary of Eastern Africa, but now owing to cheap imports of 
rice much land has gone out of cultivation. 

While Natives of Zanzibar and Pemba, except the freed slaves who rarely plant enough for their 
sustenance, display great energy in the cultivation of native crops, little enterprise is shown in the 
matter of the improvement of crops. This perhaps is not surprising when it is reflected that they 
have received little advice and encouragement in the past. There is plenty of evidence that, should 
help be given in the future, many will make good use of it, though old methods die hard and there 
is no stouter conservative than the African, 

Fishing occupies the time of many Natives. Apart from lines used only in bottom fishing, a 


t—) 


222 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


multitude of traps, nets and other devices are used. Some of these traps have been the same for 
2,000 years and are as efficient for their purpose as they could be. 

While tobacco is the chief native export from the north of the Island, coir rope manufacture 
is an important industry in the south, whence about 50,000 Ibs. are exported each month. The 
industry is entirely in the hands of women. 

Another industry of the women is mat making. Curiously enough sewing is never an occupation 
of women, ‘Treadle sewing machines are common in every village and beautiful embroidery is done 
by the men on the long white shirts they wear ; the skull caps are works of art. 

The manufacture of lime, which is burnt in large circular piles of alternate mangrove wood and 
coral rock, may be noticed, and many Natives are engaged in the construction of native dwellings 
which consist of a framework of poles plastered with mud. The roofing material is generally of the 
fronds of the coconut palm plaited together with what are known as makuti. 

Of crafts, the carpenter’s, blacksmith’s and potter’s are the most important. The former work 
with somewhat primitive tools, but turn out good work and carve beautifully. They are, however, 
much in the habit of using unseasoned wood. The blacksmiths make a large variety of knives and 
agricultural implements of imported iron, Their outfit is home-made and distinctly archaic. 

The potters, of whom many, especially in Pemba, are women, work entirely without tools and 
have no wheel, but turn out beautifully symmetrical cooking pots and water pots. Of unskilled 
occupations many Natives are engaged in transport, some using their heads, while others own 
donkey carts and bullock carts. In Makunduchi alone transport is carried out with camels. 

The only professions may be said to be those of Mwalims or teachers and the medicine men, the 
latter of whom, with a large variety of herbal remedies and magic charms, profess to cure most ills. 


Excepting the numerically few converts of the Christian missions working in the 
islands and some pagans, generally Wanyamezi, the whole of the Native population 
is Moslem. The predominant sect, of which the Sultan is head, is the Ibathi, but 
it includes only Arabs and is therefore in numerical minority. The African element 
in Zanzibar is of the Shafite school of Sunnis, introduced between 818 A.D. and the 
date of Esh-Shafi’s mission in 965 A.D. (when Shiite Persians settled on the coast and 
founded an extensive but ephemeral empire). Questions of divorce and the custody 
of children follow the law of Islam. To quote again from Mr. Ingrams’s statement : 

While every little village has its mosque, which is kept up by the villagers, and its Koran schools, 
which every child attends for several dreary years to learn and become proficient in the parrot-like 
repetitions of the Koran in a foreign tongue which even the teacher does not understand, the veneer 
of Islam is but a flimsy veil for the simpler beliefs of the Africans. . . . All that Islam does for the 
primitive African Native, when it is so little understood as in Zanzibar, is to lend itself to the more 


efficient (in the Native mind) practice of magic. Even receipts for killing one’s enemy are headed 
‘“‘ In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate.” 


Magic in Zanzibar is highly developed, and the witch-doctors are credited with 
power over leopards; potent poisons are used. Pemba is known throughout East 
Africa as a training home for wizards, and terrorism by organized secret societies 
of magic is rife. The folk-lore of the people has an Asiatic tinge. 

As to recreation, such games as football and cricket are unknown, except to the 
comparatively few Natives who attend school. The Native, as elsewhere in Africa, 
seeks his more violent recreations in dances, either for amusement or to exorcise 
devils. Wrestling matches and canoe races are found in some districts, also quarter 
staff displays. Bull-baiting is a relic of the Portuguese. 


THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 223 


The total value of exports from the islands in 1922 was £2,027,876, of which 
£118,814 were domestic and the remainder were re-exports. There is no direct taxa- 
tion of the Natives nowadays; the hut tax (with remissions for clove owners) was 
finally abolished in 1911. The most important product is cloves ; the Protectorate 
provides over 90 per cent. of the world’s supply. It is estimated that in Zanzibar 
and Pemba Islands there are to-day about 8 million trees in bearing. The clove 
trade is largely in the hands of Indian merchants ; there are besides a large number 
of Native Zanzibar Arab traders. As has been already noted, special labor is 
imported from the mainland to pick the cloves and prepare them for market. 
Another important product is copra, 


ARAB AND When the Arabs of the East Coast fought the Portuguese in the 
EUROPEAN seventeenth century, they called in the assistance of the rulers 
INFLUENCES of Muscat in Arabia. In 1698 Mombasa Fort was finally taken 

by the Mohammedans from the Portuguese. On the ruins of the 
Portuguese power the Arabs from Muscat founded their rule over the East Coast of 
Africa. Seyyid Said transferred his capital to Zanzibar in 1882. He laid the founda- 
tion of Zanzibar’s importance by making the island his permanent residence and by 
developing the cultivation of cloves. It became, politically and commercially, the 
principal Native city in East Africa. In those days the Arab proverb said, ‘ If you 
play on the flute at Zanzibar, all Africa as far as the lakes dances.” Barghash, who 
succeeded Majid in 1870, was the first to be commonly known as Sultan of Zanzibar. 
The African possessions of the old chiefs of Muscat were made independent through 
arbitration by Lord Canning, Governor-General of India in 1861. 

In 1890 British interests were officially recognized by France and Germany 
and the island was declared a British Protectorate. The mainland possessions of 
the Sultan of Zanzibar along the coast of East Africa were ceded to Italy and Germany 
respectively, while Great Britain pays an annual rent of £17,000 for the lease of the 
Sultan of Zanzibar’s dominions on the Kenya coast line. In 1891 a regular govern- 
ment was constituted in Zanzibar with Sir Lloyd Matthews as first Minister. The 
control of the Protectorate was transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial 
Office in 1914. The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kenya Colony is High 
Commissioner of Zanzibar Protectorate. 

Government is administered by a High Commissioner and a British Resident. 
There is a Council for the Protectorate which exercises functions of an advisory and 
consultative nature, with the Sultan as President, the British Resident as Vice- 
President, and three official and four unofficial members. Justice is administered 
in two courts—one exercising jurisdiction over British and forei gn subjects and in all 
cases in which one of the parties is a British or forei gn subject, the other over subjects 
of the Sultan. 

The central administration consists of the Sultan, the High Commissioner, the 
British Resident and the secretarial staff. There is a government printing press. 
District administration is carried on by a Senior Commissioner, two District Com- 


224 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


missioners and seven Assistant District Commissioners. There are the usual depart- 
ments, including Public Health (one Medical Officer of Health, one Assistant and one 
Economic Biologist), Education (one Director of Education and four masters), and 
Agriculture (one Director of Agriculture with seven assistants). 

The total revenue for 1922 was £426,418 0s. 2d., of which £251,756 8s. 1d. was in 
Customs. The total expenditure for the same year was £508,788 12s. 2d. The 
following table shows some of the disbursements made : 


I. Education, agriculture and health, 

Education, £5,969 ; agriculture, £42,209 ; medical, £34,711. . . + + - £82,889 
Il. Territorial administration. 

High Commissioner, Resident, secretariat, £8,921 ; district officers, £20,896 ; 


treasury, £4,898 ; printing press, £6,284; legal and judicial, £18,360 . . . 59,359 
III. Military, police, prisons. 
Military, £8,669 ; police and prisons, £17,104. . - - + + + + + % 25,773 


IV. Public works, railway, electricity, posts and telegraphs. 
Publie works, £180,148 ; railway and electricity, £32,492 ; workshop, £1,581 ; 
posts and telegraphs, £6,189 ele Lief We ee eat) Nn ek OAT es 220,410 


The analysis of expenditure reflects the direction of the influence exercised by the 
Government. The unusually large amount spent for public works, amounting to 
35 per cent. of the total expenditure and 42 per cent. of the revenue, eclipses all 
others and is explained by special improvements that are permanent. Owing to 
this unusual expenditure the proportions spent for other departments of Govern- 
ment appear small. The actual amounts spent in proportion to the population 
compare favorably with other colonies. The appropriation for education was 
approximately £6,000, or 1 per cent. of all expenditures. In view of the unde- 
veloped state of education in the Colony, it is obvious that this 1s insufficient. 


II. EDUCATION 


Education has not hitherto played an adequate part in the development of the 
Protectorate and its peoples. The report for 1922 shows the expenditure for 
education to be approximately £6,000. The educational interests are under the 
supervision of the Director of Education and an Advisory Council of Education 
of which he is President. 'The membership of this Council includes officials of 
Government, missions, and representatives of the Arab and Indian inhabitants. 
The heterogeneity of the population and the power of racial traditions have been 
serious obstacles to the development ef an educational system that could command 
the interest of the people. ; 

Christian missions have not had the success among the people of Zanzibar that 
they have had in the colonies of the African continent. The estimated youth of 
school age is approximately 40,000 ; of this number only 3,000 are reported to be in 
government and mission schools. Fully half of the number in schools are Indians. 
This is less than 10 per cent. of the children of school age, and obviously reflects on 


THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 225 


both the inadequate educational facilities and the indifference of the people to 
western education. 


GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 


According to the latest reports, there are 7 district elementary schools maintained 
by Government: 2 in Pemba and’5 in Zanzibar. The Government has recently 
erected a new school in Zanzibar. This institution is well constructed and suited to 
urban education. Seven years of instruction are provided; the classes include 
Arab, Indian and African pupils. The teachers’ training class offers instruction 
to pupils from any school in Zanzibar. Instruction is given free of all cost to those 
who sign on for the full course and some bursaries are provided. The commercial 
course, attended mainly by Indians, offers three years’ training for pupils who 
desire to enter general commercial work. Technical classes in carpentry and tailoring 
are provided in the central school The government printer also offers opportunities 
to apprentices. 

Swahili is the first language of instruction in the elementary schools, followed by 
English in the higher standards. The vernacular of the pupils is used as far as 
possible in Arab or Indian schools. 

New educational schemes of a promising character are being evolved by Govern- 
ment. Though now only in embryo, they are capable of indefinite expansion. 


Selective Hducation.—Government, recognizing the unsatisfactory results of a voluntary system 
of education, has based its plans on the principle known as ‘‘ Compulsory Selective Education.” 
The word “ selective” in this connection implies that the Government means to work with, rather 
than against, the hereditary trade system favoured by the Natives. Thus, in the majority of cases, 
farmers’ sons will be sent to agricultural schools, blacksmiths’ sons to industrial schools, and—most 
interesting of all—the sons of medicine men and witch-doctors will be given an elementary medical 
training. In all these cases, of course, Native standards of knowledge and attainment will be greatly 
improved. The way will, of course, be left open for those who wish to depart from their fathers’ 
occupation, 

Agricultural and Industrial Schools.—The plan is to organize in Pemba six agricultural and three 
industrial schools, all of an elementary standard. A boarding school in Zanzibar is also to be 
started for those of the Pemba youth who wish to continue their general education beyond the 
elementary grades. The foundation of three new elementary agricultural schools in Zanzibar has 
been approved and these were opened this year. In two of these each boy will have his own garden ; 
the third is purely for Arabs. The instruction will be adapted to the respective needs of the areas 
where cloves and coconuts are grown, as well as to the improved cultivation of purely Native crops. 
It has been suggested that machinery for the drying of cloves and copra should be set up in the 
schools, the people of the neighbourhood being encouraged to bring their products to the schools 
for treatment, It is proposed that an advanced agricultural course intended for Arab landowners 
shall be inaugurated at Machui. 


Medical Schemes,—The medical schemes of the Government are peculiarly interesting and it is 
hoped that proposals for medical education will forward them, The aims in view are to combat 
the universal prevalence of hook-worm, to provide intelligence service for the location of diseases 
in general and to encourage a belief in European medicine among the Natives by training some 
of their number in the simpler elements of its practice. At present, it is well known that Natives 
will enter a European hospital only as a last resort. The new plan is to establish dispensaries in 


226 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


existing communities of some 2,000 huts, to ascertain the prevalence of diseases, to treat minor 
ailments and to inaugurate preventive and curative measures in the treatment of hook-worm in the 
first instance. Four special medical officers are to be set apart to superintend the working of the 
scheme, and a number of Native dispensers are already in training. It is hoped that provision will 
be made for 15 of these dispensaries in Pemba and 17 in Zanzibar in the near future. Several of 
these dispensaries have in fact been approved and are being built. 

Steps are being taken by Government to improve the religious teaching given in Mohammedan 
schools, Extracts from the Koran containing moral precepts are now being translated into Swahili, 
instead of being repeated parrot-wise in Arabic. 

New educational developments in Zanzibar are retarded mainly through the lack of trained 
teachers. Old teachers are now used to start new schools, but the scheme can never be successfully 
administered until more teachers have completed the training course. Temporary teachers are 
sent into town for refresher courses. Though Zanzibar town is, in many respects, an undesirable 
center for the training of teachers, there seems little hope of starting even a minor training center 
elsewhere, owing to the lack of funds and staff for such an institution. 


MIssIon SCHOOLS 


Three missionary societies maintain schools in the Protectorate. These schools 
report an enrollment of 775 children with an average attendance of 580. The Roman 
Catholic Mission, of which particulars are not available, reports an enrollment of 
387, of whom 272 are boys and 115 are girls. The schools of the Universities’ Mission 
report 234, of whom 190 are boys and 44 girls. The Friends’ Industrial Mission 
in Pemba report 153, of whom 141 are boys and 12 girls. 

The Universities’ Mission 

The Universities’ Mission, whose work has been noted in Tanganyika and Nyasa 
land and will be met again in Portuguese East Africa, have hitherto maintained a 
central training institution at Kiungani, on Zanzibar Island, for their stations both 
on the island and on the mainland. Plans are now under way to remove this important 
institution, where the provision made for pupils and for their training seemed to be 
exceptionally good, to the mainland, where most of the work of the Universities’ Mission 
is carried on. The pupils at this institution are practically all Natives who come 
from the mainland and return there to serve as teachers in the various fields of the 
Universities’ Mission. 

While the Reportis passing through the press, the news of the death of the Bishop 
of Zanzibar has been received. Few greater losses could have befallen the African 
people. Bishop Weston, warrior and saint, had consecrated great gifts with un- 
sparing devotion to the service of Africa and of its growing Christian Church. 


The Friends’ Foreign Mission Association 
o 


The Friends’ Foreign Mission Association began their work on the island of 
Pemba in 1897 for the purpose of helping freed slaves to become independent and 
self-supporting. 'The Mission maintains a plantation and provides for the cultivation 
of about 150 acres. The chief crops are cloves and coconuts, which are sold for 
the maintenance of the Mission. The expenses of the plantation, not including the 


THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 227 


salaries of Europeans in charge of the work, are entirely paid from the sale of the 
products. It is reported that a small promising Christian community is growing 
up in connection with the work of this Mission. The Mission has 8 central station 
schools and 7 small out-stations. The teaching staff includes 6 Natives and three 
Europeans. The Mission reports 47 persons employed in industrial activities. The 
future plans for the Friends’ work in Pemba are now being carefully considered by 
representatives of the Mission. 


Ill. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The brief survey of economic and sociological conditions in the islands of Zanzibar 
and Pemba reveals them to be more Oriental than African. The customs, traditions 
and religion are more permanent and tenacious in their influence than in Africa. 
The heterogeneity of population and social condition is so pronounced as almost 
to defeat any social movement on behalf of the community as a whole. The past 
stubbornly obstructs the present. The Oriental smiles at the kindly advances of 
the Occidental, but refuses to move. Mohammedan forms and conventions, 
sometimes quite superficial, carry on contentedly and yet firmly in the presence of 
Christianity whether in ceremony or in principle. 

There is evident need for every constructive influence of an education related to 
the health of the people, their methods of agriculture, the conditions of their homes, 
their recreations and their type of mind and character. Superstitions are generally 
hampering their prosperity, their physique and their mental development. Racial 
and class distinctions and numerous castes have crystallized into the permanency of 
stagnation. Zanzibar, on the highways of the nations, is either altogether indifferent 
to the great influences daily at her door or accepts the artificial and superficial 
elements of these influences. 

The attempts of western education to take root in the human soil of the real 
Zanzibar have been most disappointing in their results. Africans have been receptive 
and responsive here as on the mainland, but the people of Zanzibar and Pemba have 
remained largely untouched. The fundamental fact confronting Government and 
those who believe in education is that only a negligible number of the 40,000 children of 
school age are receiving the advantages of education. The Universities’ Mission and 
the Roman Catholics have long had schools in Zanzibar. The Friends’ Mission has 
maintained a small educational work in Pemba. Government has had a Depart- 
ment of Education for several years and has organized a few schools. The sum total 
of all the pupils in both government and mission schools is only about 3,000, of whom 
1,500 are Indians. 

The inevitable deduction from these facts is either that the methods have been 
wrong or the efforts have not been adequate. It is likely that both conditions apply 
to the administration of education in Zanzibar. The evidence indicates that the 
type of education offered has been quite unrelated to both the needs and the traditions 
of the people. Owing to the resulting failures or to limited funds the organization 


228 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of the school system has not been vigorously pushed. Fortunately, the present 
Government, and especially the British Resident, have adopted an educational 
policy that is both wise and vigorous. Funds adequate to the initiation of a school 
system are assured. Far more important, however, is the confidence created by 
evidence that the Resident and his associates have a scientific appreciation of both 
the sociological and economic basis of education. The policy now being enforced 
has a regard for the traditions of the people so far as they are not inimical to the 
mental and moral development of the youth. They are furthermore directed to im- 
prove the health, to increase the industrial and agricultural skill, and to develop 
sound traits of character. They are also related to the life of the community in 
which the school is situated. 

There is no evidence to indicate that the missions are planning to change their 
methods. They have rendered a valuable service so far as the mainland Africans 
are concerned. They have doubtless helped to maintain an interest in education, 
and to strengthen better standards of life. It has not been possible to ascertain 
the extent of service which they could render with larger funds and better adapted 
methods. The success of Christian missions in Africa, and elsewhere in the world, 
suggests the importance of the service which these missions should be able to render 
in the education of the people of Zanzibar and Pemba. The conviction of British 
officials that religion is an essential of education in Africa has real significance in 
relation to educational administration in Zanzibar. The following recommenda- 
tions are offered for the consideration of both Government and missions : 


1. The Department of Education and the Advisory Council should determine 
the objectives of education on the basis of a survey of the needs of both the leaders 
and the masses of the people in Zanzibar and Pemba. The essential elements to 
which attention should be directed in this survey are: health, cultivation of the soil, 
‘ndustrial skill both for the small village needs and for large industrial operations, 
conditions of housing and family life, healthful recreations and character development. 
The conditions of life of the well-established urban population of the city of Zanzibar 
should, of course, be considered, but they should not be allowed to exclude the needs 
of the rural peoples in Zanzibar and Pemba islands. This survey should also con- 
sider the racial traditions and religious beliefs of the people. 


2. The educational system should provide a rural school for the training of rural 
teachers. No obstacle to this vital arrangement should be considered insurmount- 
able. It is desirable that the institution should begin immediately on a simple, 
modest but very real basis. Efforts should not be spared to win the cooperation 
of those necessary to the success of the school. The type of institution is described 
in another chapter of this Report. 


3. The rural school system should develop naturally from this rural center of 
teacher training. 

4. The supervision of the rural schools should be carried on by visiting teachers 
who would be in frequent conference with the teachers in the little local schools. 


PATE NOV 





IN ZANZIBAR AND PEMBA 


(a) Native Village in Zanzibar ; (b) Bridge in Pemba : Mohammedan Prayer Platform 
in Rear ; (c) A Pemba Christian ; (d@) Pemba Costumes, 


XXVIII 


PLATE 





*‘Ipunsuosty je Uopaes) pue osnoyzy (p) £ sqny JIOAA puB S}NoOdg aLqIzUeZ, ISAT 
ou (9) £ qooryg oATVeN peordAy, y (q) § tuesunpy ye 100Cq] JUDLOUY pue ABAMATe}S (7) 
UVAIZNVZ NI 


i 
4, 


ii 


i 
di. 


1 EA BYNA BLD) POD DAC 


‘ofopoly, Sagta 
> OSNOF]T & Surpying s 


{ SIY pue tojyonaysuy Aarzuoda 


(1) VISHQOHY NY 


of 

é 
| 
; 


B) (P) £ of yojoly, ‘oulryeuryoleg. (2) 
Aoq[ooypg vavysoqurocy (q) £ SHU Ssodojzeyy ‘aanay S,Sopoyyy Te 


HHLOOS NI 


99) (n) 





PATHE 





IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA (2) 


(a) Mount Silinda ; First Ordination Council, 1924 ; (b) Old Umtali Mission : Nurses from 
Maternity Ward ; (c) Class in Hope Fountain Girls’ School. 


THE ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE 229 


5. The cooperation of the Government Departments of Health, Agriculture and 
Public Works, as well as the friendly aid of the local administrative office, should be 
directed to the encouragement and maintenance of the rural school system. The 
local schools can be made the best possible representatives of the Departments for 
local service. 

6. The special requirements of Zanzibar city should also be considered. Oppor- 
tunities for training along commercial and mechanical lines should be provided. 
As urban conditions have already received much consideration it is hardly necessary 
to comment further. 

7. In all this development it is hoped that the missions will find a place in which 
they can render the service so much needed in the building up of Native character. 


CHAPTER X 
SOUTHERN RHODESIA 


HE problems of Native education in Southern Rhodesia are inextricably 
6 Reet in the interests of a comparatively large European population, the 
sub-tropical and temperate climate of the country, and the policies of the responsible 
Government established in 1928. Though the European population is approxi- 
mately only 33,000 as against 800,000 Natives, the proportion is far greater than that 
in any of the tropical Colonies, and is sufficiently great to have developed policies that 
are in some respects similar to those of the Union of South Africa. The temperate 
and sub-tropical climate indicates the probable increase of European influence in the 
country and the usual perplexities of adjustment between black and white. Students 
of Native affairs will be greatly interested to observe the policies relating to 
Native education enacted by the Government, which is largely composed of a 
distinctly British membership. As in South Africa, the appropriations for Native 
education compare favorably with those of tropical Colonies, but are almost negligible 
in comparison with the appropriations for white youth. Several missionary societies 
organized educational activities many years before representatives of business or 
Government entered the country and are now maintaining schools that are remarkable 
both in quality and extent. In addition to the grants-in-aid to the mission schools, 
Government about three years ago initiated important experiments in the adaptation 
of education to the needs of the Natives on reservations. The serious interest now 
manifested in Native education by all parties in Southern Rhodesia is welcomed as a 
happy promise for the future. The rapid enlargement of Government, commerce, 
industry and farming is certain to increase the demand for the sound and effective 
education of the Native people in health, agricultural and industrial skill, character 
development and the ability to participate helpfully in colonial activities. 


I. ECONOMICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Southern Rhodesia, with the Transvaal on its southern boundary and Portuguese 
territory on the East, extends from latitude 16° to 22° south. While it is entirely 
in the tropics, its elevation, ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level, gives to 
it a temperate climate. Its area, practically 150,000 square miles, is rather less than 
that of California, or ten times that of Switzerland. The population of less than 
1,000,000, including Natives, Europeans and Asiatics, is thinly distributed over the 
moderately fertile land at an average density of 5 to the square mile. 


THE The estimated population of Natives born in the country and others 

PEOPLE permanently settled is about 790,200, of whom 503,800 live on the 

Reserves, 103,200 on unalienated land, 161,400 on alienated land and 

21,800 are employed in mines or towns. The Reserves, with a total area of 19,000,000 
230 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 231 


acres, are distributed in various parts of the Colony. Native administration is divided 
into 82 districts, with a considerable population in each. The larger populations are 
in the ‘southern and eastern districts. Missions have established most of their schools 
in these areas. The best known tribes of the Colony are the Mashona, who were 
the original inhabitants of the country, and the Matabele, who conquered them about 
1887. The former tribes occupy the south-eastern section, and the latter are in the 
south and west. The history of the Matabele raids upon the Mashona from 1837 
to 1889 and their conflicts with white settlers, continuing from time to time until 
1896, reveals the ability and bravery of the Natives as well as the courage and hard- 
ships of the early settlers. Throughout these troublous times missionaries carried on 
their services to the Natives and helped to avert many tragic conflicts both among 
the Natives themselves and between them and the European pioneers. The bitter 
memories of these conflicts are gradually being forgotten. 

The Department of Native Affairs is working actively and sympathetically for the 
improvement of the Natives. Steady movement from the unalienated land to the 
Reserves is reported. Drought conditions have recently retarded this movement. 
Government is now working on the problem of an adequate water supply for the 
Reserves, and a number of wells have been drilled. The Commissioner of Native Affairs 
is of the opinion that ‘“ the conversion of Native land tenure from the communal to the 
individual system is the true basis on which the progress of the Native is to be evolved. 
To encourage Natives to occupy to the best advantage the land set aside for their 
benefit is to prepare the way for individual tenure.” The Department is fully con- 
scious of the importance of teaching the Natives to cultivate their land more 
intensively. It is reported that market gardeners trained in the Umtali Mission 
school have been able to compete successfully with the Asiatic gardeners. In the 
Marandellas districts, six Natives have sunk their own wells to make horticultural 
work possible. The number of plows is increasing each year. Natives are 
becoming interested in forestry, and a few have been supplied with tree seedlings to 
assist them in afforestation. As the Commissioner of Native Affairs observes, these 
are signs of progress, but they are not meant to prove that the Native farmer is 
generally progressive. There is a most pressing need for agricultural instruction and 
an equally insistent necessity for market possibilities to encourage the Natives to 
work, The Commissioner of the Department indicates some of the difficulties of his 
work in the following significant statement : 

An exasperating feature of the Native character has been the manner in which many Natives 
have resolutely declined to help themselves. Young men without family ties, who at the com- 
mencement of the famine were offered work within their own district a few miles from their homes, 
declined to accept it, and later these same have been loudest in protestations that they would die 
unless fed gratis by a paternal Native Commissioner. 

Considerable effort has been made to use tribal organization in Native administra- 
tion. The Colony is divided into five divisions each under a European superintendent. 
These larger divisions are subdivided into districts administered by a Native Com- 
missioner. Limited power and defined responsibilities are assigned to 880 Native 





ACE HUITT 


Liatui 


EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


TANGANYIKA 78 


cera ivi stone 
# Memorial © 


R- 


~ As 


a 
WD fBroken Hill 


Kas enerae 


° BAROTSELAND 
Sefule 


w= Sesheke 
exg Livingstone 
CO med 5 Pe ° 


Lb 
<7 OR/A( FALLS 


ren eae 
° Hope Fountain “Victoria 4 
; Morgenster haps 


sabt 


ENGLISH MILES 


PORTUGUESE 


Gi 
b 





SOUTHERN RHODESIA 233 


chiefs, who receive remuneration for their services. The Southern Rhodesia Con- 
stitution contains very significant enactments relative to Native rights and adminis- 
tration. The more important of these are indicated here. 


EXTRACTS FROM SOUTHERN RHODESIA CONSTITUTION, 1928—-NATIVE ADMINISTRATION 


39. There shall be a Native Department, the permanent head of which shall be appointed by 
the Governor in Council with the approval of the High Commissioner, and all Chief Native Com- 
missioners, Superintendents of Natives, Native Commissioners and Assistant Native Commissioners 
or any officers appointed to exercise the functions now exercised by the aforesaid officers or any of 
them shall be appointed in the like manner and subject to the like approval, and the said officers 
shall continue to perform the duties at present assigned to them, subject to any alterations or addi- 
tions which the Governor in Council may from time to time with the approval of the High Commis- 
sioner prescribe by notice in the Gazette. 

41. No conditions, disabilities or restrictions which do not equally apply to persons of European 
descent shall, without the previous consent of the High Commissioner, be imposed upon Natives 
(save in respect of the supply of arms, ammunition and liquor) by any Proclamation, Regulation 
or other instrument issued under the provisions of any Law, unless such conditions, disabilities or 
restrictions shall have been explicitly prescribed, defined and limited in such Law. 

42, (1) The Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1920, whereby the lands known as the Native 
Reserves were vested in the High Commissioner and set apart for the sole and exclusive use of the 
Native inhabitants of Southern Rhodesia, shall continue in full force and effect as if it formed part 
of these Our Letters Patent, and no portion of the land comprised within the said Reserves shall be 
alienated except for the purposes authorized for other suitable land. 

(2) The power reserved to the High Commissioner by the Water Ordinance, 1918, Further 
Amendment Ordinance, 1921, shall remain of full force and effect. 

43. A Native may acquire, hold, encumber, and dispose of land on the same conditions as a 
person who is not a Native, but no contract for encumbering or alienating land the property of a 
Native shall be valid unless the contract is made in the presence of a Magistrate, is attested by him 
stating that the consideration for the contract is fair and reasonable, and that he has satisfied himself 
that the Native understands the transaction. 

47. (1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council subject to the approval of the High Com- 
missioner, at any time after the commencement of these Our Letters Patent, to establish by Pro- 
clamation in any Native Reserve or Reserves such Council or Councils of indigenous Natives repre- 
sentative of the local chiefs and other Native residents as may seem to him expedient for the dis- 
cussion from time to time of any matters upon which, as being of direct interest or concern to the 
Native population generally or to any portion thereof, he may desire to ascertain, or they may desire 
to submit, their views, and, subject to the like approval, to make regulations for the constitution 
of such Council or Councils, for the appointment of the places and times of meeting, for the manner 
of conducting the proceedings, and for all other matters incidental or properly appertaining to the 
establishment and periodical meetings of such Council or Councils including, if he think fit, the occa- 
sional or regular meeting of any two or greater number of such Councils in joint session. 

(2) It shall also be lawful for the Governor in Council, subject to the like approval, to make 
regulations conferring on any such Council such powers of management in connection with local 
matters affecting the indigenous Natives as can in his opinion be safely and satisfactorily undertaken 
by them, and by such regulations or by any subsequent regulations to make all such provisions as 
may be necessary in order to give effect to such powers. 


These are significant enactments defining the partnership of the “ British Com- 
monwealth of Nations ” and the responsible Government of Southern Rhodesia for 
the development of the Native people. It is fortunate that the Chief Native Com- 


234 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


missioner sees so clearly ‘‘ that the reservations of areas contiguous to Reserves, for 
acquisition by Natives under individual tenure, is a subject that must be taken in 
hand before much time elapses.”” This conviction has been strongly supported by 
the late Maurice Evans, the well-known South African writer, who said : “‘ The areas 
set apart in which Natives can acquire land by purchase should be sufficiently large to 
support a community numerous enough to supply itself with all it needs for its social 
life. There must not be small black areas scattered among the whites.” The realiza- 
tion of these ideals by Southern Rhodesia is not only essential to its own welfare but 
will become an inspiration to all Governments responsible for inter-racial relationships. 


THE The physical resources of the country are both agricultural and mineral. 
COUNTRY While the fertility of the soil on the whole is only moderate, it is fairly 
general throughout the Colony. There are numerous areas of high fertility 
with a fairly regular supply of water. The country is drained by the tributaries of 
three large rivers : the Zambesi in the north, and the Sabi and Limpopo in the south. 
Considerable areas, however, suffer from severe droughts, which have brought great 
suffering to the Native people and losses to the settlers. It is estimated that about 
100,000 square miles have an altitude of 3,000 feet and over, and 26,000 square miles an 
altitude of 4,000 feet. Practically all European vegetables may be cultivated, also the 
sub-tropical fruits such as figs, lemons, oranges, peaches and, in some parts, bananas 
and pineapples. Coffee can also be grown. The agricultural possibilities are being 
constantly developed by the settlers and the Natives under the leadership of the 
Government. The adoption of an extension of instruction in agriculture would 
greatly stimulate Native production and increase the wealth of the country. 
Rhodesia has long been known for its mineral resources. Zimbabwe Ruins and 
other interesting remains of temples and fortresses are regarded by some as an evidence 
of traffic in gold by the Phcenicians or other people of the ancient times. The following 
statement for 1922 indicates the variety and extent of the mineral resources: Gold, 
652,791 ounces, at a value of £3,111,468 ; silver, 172,209 ounces; coal, 515,650 tons ; 
chrome ore, 93,475 tons ; copper, 3,388 tons ; asbestos, 14,249 tons ; mica, 66 tons ; 
arsenic, 497 tons; diamonds, 256 carats ; lead, tungsten ores, antimony, tin and barytes 
have been produced. 


EUROPEAN European influence in Rhodesia began with the missionaries of the 
INFLUENCE London Missionary Society, who were permitted in 1859 and 1860 to 

settle in Matabeleland by the chief Mosilikatze, famous for his 
fighting abilities and his conquest of the Mashona. In 1888 Lobengula his son 
concluded a treaty with the British South Africa Company, who received a Royal 
Charter from the British Government with large powers of administration including 
the extension of the railway and telegraph system from Cape Colony to Rhodesia, 
Various conflicts occurred between 1889 and 1896, when both the Matabele and the 
Mashona settled finally under the authority of the British South Africa Company. 
In September, 1923, the territory was formally annexed to the British Dominions 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 235 


under the title of the Colony of Southern Rhodesia, and in the following October the 
Colony was granted by Letters Patent responsible government under a constitution 
providing for a Legislature with a Legislative Council Assembly of 80 members. This 
Legislature is authorized to make all laws required for the peace, order and good 
government of the Colony, but with certain reservations, some of which relating to 
Native affairs have already been indicated. 

The activities of the Government and their relation to Native affairs are approxi- 
mately indicated by the following table showing the estimates of expenditure for the 
year ending March, 1924. They have been arranged roughly according to their 
educational influence. In view of the large white population, effort has been made to 
differentiate the expenditures for Native development. 

Total Expenditures . . ie ee. 21,509,000 
I. Education, Native Department: health’ ahd pyrienitire £548,000 
Education, £225,000 (of which about £20,000 are 
grants-in-aid to Native schools) ; Native Department, 
£129,000 (of which £4,760 are for Native government 


schools) ; health and hospitals, £90,000 ; agriculture, 
£49,300 ; veterinary, £54,700. 


If. ‘Territorial administration andcourts. . . .. . 65,200 

III. Police, militaryand prisons . . é 298,000 
Police, £215,000 ; peta 000 ; Paltary. £35, 000. 

IV. Publicworks . . : 251,000 


Posts and tira, “£129, 000; pane marke and 
roads, £122,000. 


It is obviously impossible to ascertain the influence of these expenditures on the 
welfare of the 800,000 Native people. The direct influence is clearly much greater in the 
interest of the 34,000 Europeans. In education the comparison can be made quite 
definitely. Of the total expenditures for the Education Department, amounting 
to £225,000, almost £20,000 are grants-in-aid to Native schools. This sum should be 
increased by some proportion of the general expenditures on administration, which 
amounts to almost £12,000. A liberal estimate of this proportion is probably about 
£3,000. This indicates that the Education Department spends £23,000 on Native 
education. To this sum should be added the expenditures of the Native Department 
on the two government schools, amounting to approximately £7,000, including both 
the actual expenditures amounting to £4,760 and the administrative expenses. The 
total expenditures for Native education, therefore, amount to £380,000 or slightly 
more than one-eighth of the total educational expenditure for the Colony. 

The only division of Government directly concerned with Native affairs is the 
Native Department, with a total expenditure of £129,000. The developmental 
contribution of this Department is both vital and varied. Reference is made in other 
paragraphs to the two schools maintained by it. In estimating the cost of all govern- 
ment activities for Natives, it is important to ascertain as nearly as possible the con- 
tribution of the Natives to government income. Such an estimate, made by a repre- 
sentative of the Colonial Office, shows that the total amount is approximately £895,000, 


236 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA | 


of which the largest item is the Native tax, amounting to £286,230. These facts 
show conclusively that the expenditures for Native development are far more than 
paid by the Native himself. 

The total appropriations of Group I, amounting to £548,000, constitute about 42 
per cent. of the total estimates for 1924. This reflects the wise policy of the Govern- 
ment in large expenditures for internal development as regards agriculture, live 
stock, and, most important of all, health and education. The Natives undoubtedly 
profit directly and indirectly by all these activities. Territorial administration and 
courts, reported in Group II, are only 5 per cent. of the total income, a commendably 
small proportion as compared with other British Colonies. The appropriations for 
police, military and prisons, amounting to £298,000, are almost 23 per cent. of the 


total estimates. This is an unusually large proportion and surprising in view of the 


comparatively large number of British settlers distributed throughout the Colony. 
An effective system of Native education related to the condition of their kraals 
would undoubtedly diminish the need for these large expenditures. The expenditures 
for posts and telegraphs, roads and public works is only 20 per cent. of the total und 
compares favorably with other parts of British Africa. 

The European population, according to the census of 1921, was 83,620 ; Asiatics 
and other colored people numbered 3,634. The principal occupations of the 
Europeans were industrial, 1,500; commerce, 3,250; agriculture, 3,600; general 
dealers, 1,018 ; hotel owners and employees, 320. The Asiatics were chiefly store- 
keepers and personal servants. The Colony has several towns, some of which rank 
in municipal facilities with the smaller cities of Great Britain. Each town has « con- 
siderable European population and a comparatively large Native population. The 
European population in the following list is according to the census of 1921: Salisbury, 
the seat of the Government, Europeans, 6,500; Bulawayo, 6,800; Umtali, 2,300; 
Gwelo, 3,000; Hartley, 2,000; Victoria, 900; Selukwe, 600. The railway system 
is well developed. ‘The main line connecting Bulawayo with the railway system of 
the Union of South Africa was completed in 1897. The extension from Bulawayo 
across the Colony to the East and on to Beira on the coast was completed in 1902. 
The railway from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls was completed in 1904, and in 1909 it 
was extended to the Congo border. The total mileage was approximately 2,500 
miles. Several branch railways extend from the main line in various directions. 
Even this brief outline of European activities shows the remarkable progress since 
1889, when the treaty was signed with Lobengula, the King of the Matabele. The 
educational and religious work of the missions among Natives as presented in the next 
section, together with the influence of government officials and settlers, are effecting 
tremendous changes whose significance to the Natives can hardly be realized. 


II. EDUCATION 


The Government has for several years wisely recognized the policy of grants-in-aid 
to mission schools. Mission influence in the Colony began long before Government or 
settlers arrived in the country. The London Missionary Society won the confidence 





™, Kd ra ° ¥ 
Y % Ws ga ny ‘s 
Wi te J Ka 
‘ 
~~ 
a 
~ 
~ om s 
ra f y 
- } ( 
* ag X 
weal? { t 
fo f “ 
rl i : 
/ i) 3 
/ (< 
a ~ 
a Li, 
¢ 
ee % aa ! a) 
qj “a 


— oe _ oe —__ 2 _—_—_—_—— 
i) +O 100 i290 200 «/ 





(D) ~= Dutch Reformed Church. 


—_ ._— Boundary, 
Here Railroad. 


————~ Rive. 


Ya 





SOUTHERN RHODESIA 237 


of Lobengula before the treaty was made with the British South Africa Company in 
1889. For many years the missions exerted a helpful influence among the Natives 
without any aid from the Government. The Director of Education reports the 
following facts concerning the educational work of missionary societies in 1923: 








Ist & 2nd Class 8rd Class and 

Missionary Society Total Grant Schools Evening Schools 

g No. Attendance No. Attendance 
Roman Catholic Tt <Aeo sme ae ne 38,856 27 1,953 95 3,797 
Dutch Reformed. ker ee 3,669 13 643 261 9,407 
Chireh of Hoagland a. «i ces eil'ea Ale 2,948 11 632 174 7,205 
Wesleyan Methodist . .. . . 2,465 4 835 150 6,086 
American Methodist My A> Wee & 2,271 9 528 94, 8,721 
American Congregational . . . . 1,727 4 593 18 913 
London Missionary . . . . . . 1,055 3 143 71 2,919 
RL TAHOIMAT IV eo. pus deg lo 456 4 102 43 1,540 
Brethren in Christ oi. og db 862 4 188 29 579 
Seventh Day Adventists . . . . 8355 4 102 45 998 
RMCAON UCTID Dh tae re te ke 98 0 0 11 393 
Sahiricn General lyse. ee ee 96 2 72 0, 0 
emirch opSweden vis.) iter. ss 54 1 22 11 171 
IONIC LUR eDarey Ohe ic riteye) Aah onc 7 0 0 1 27 
Motalivwae ap Gams} 19,419 86 5,313 1,003 37,756 


According to this table, there are 14 missionary socicties receiving grants-in-aid 
amounting to £19,419 from the Government. There are 86 first and second class 
schools, with 5,313 pupils who qualify for grants. The total enrollment in these 
schools is 7,697. These are the schools that really approximate to standards of edu- 
cation recognized in Europe and America. The third-class schools number 975 
and the evening schools 28, and the number of their pupils said to qualify for grants 
is 37,756 out of a total of 62,294 on the roll. The educational significance of these 
little schools has recently been the subject of serious discussion, not only in Southern 
Rhodesia but in practically all the British Colonies. It is generally agreed that they 
have potential values and that many of them have rendered an important educational 
service. The lack of supervision has seriously hampered their possibilities and still 
continues to do so. The Native teachers in many of them have had very little 
training. The Director of Education comments wisely upon them in the following 
quotation from his Report for 1928 : 

The statistics recorded above indicate, first, that an increasing proportion of the main effort 
of the missions is being expended upon the first-class schools ; and, secondly, that the growth 
of the third-class or “* kraal”’ type of school continues unabated. In the second-class schools there 
was a considerable increase in enrollment, which was accompanied by a slight shrinkage of the sums 
earned as grant, which indicates that, as stated above, effort is being concentrated upon the boarding 
schools in which it is obviously best repaid. There was a considerable falling off in the number of 
evening schools ; but this is not of much significance, as most of those which ceased to exist were 
replaced by third-class schools. 

The third-class Native mission school remains a difficult problem. Its numbers and its average 


enrollment are increasing rapidly ; its efficiency remains low, and without any marked indication 
12 


238 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of an upward tendency. The difficulties of inspection are in present circumstances practically 
insurmountable ; third-class schools are too numerous, too difficult to reach, and too ill-equipped 
for inspection to be made effective except at prohibitive cost. In general, the missions find it very 
difficult to resist the temptation to establish new third-class schools ; the natural desire of mis- 
sionaries is to occupy the field in which their work is conducted as closely as possible, and there is 
no doubt that the subscribers to mission funds in Europe and America exercise a powerful influence 
in this direction. In certain districts there is definite competition between different missionary 
agencies, Which supplies a further stimulus. The result is that schools of this type tend to multiply 
more rapidly than the real resources of the missions, whether as regards Native teachers or European 
supervision, really justify. There is therefore much inefficiency in these schools ; and up to the 
present it must be admitted that the output of the missionary institutions for the training of Native 
teachers has done little to counteract it. 


On the other hand, the grants earned in this type of school, which in 1923 averaged hardly more 
than three shillings per head, are so small that it is unreasonable to expect efficient teaching in them. 
The grants earned represent, in fact, no more than a very moderate allowance for school material. 

The remedy is not easy to find—probably, indeed, no single remedy is possible. Various devices 
might be adopted to improve matters if funds for the purpose could be found. These include the 
establishment of a government training institution for Native teachers, a considerably increased 
provision for inspection, a system of grants for school equipment, and a differential scale of grants 
designed to assist the efficient third-class school in comparison with, possibly to some extent at the 
expense Of, its inefficient neighbour. 


At present the grants-in-aid for the 34 first-class schools with an enrollment of 
2,119 pupils amount to £7,740; for the 52 second-class schools with an enrollment of 
5,578, £2,222; for the 1,003 third-class and evening schools with an enrollment of 
62,294 the grants are £9,457. Almost half of the total grant is spent on the third- 
class and evening schools, and yet they are reported to be without adequate supervision 
and to a considerable extent ineffective. 

The responsibility of Government and missions for Native education in Southern 
Rhodesia requires the provision of schools for the children of approximately 800,000 
people. Estimating the children of school age as one-fifth of the total population, 
the number for which schools should ultimately be provided is 160,000. If the total 
enrollment, amounting to 70,000 Native children, is accepted as a measure of present 
school facilities, Southern Rhodesia must receive a high rank among the Colonies of 
Africa. Even the 43,000 pupils qualifying for grant constitute a fair proportion 
of those who should be in school according to African standards. In view of the 
unsupervized and ill-equipped condition of a large number of third-class schools, it 
seems unfair to the Native people to attach much importance to them as measures 
of educational facilities. Justice to the education of the Natives requires that the 
number of pupils in the first and second class schools shall be regarded as the real 
measure of school provision. On this basis it appears that there are 86 schools with 
an attendance of 5,313. The quality and extent of work in these institutions are 
indicated in the descriptions of the mission schools presented in succeeding para- 
graphs, in the order of the table which appears on a previous page. Notes are, how- 
ever, first given on the government schools which have been organized within the last 
three years, for the purpose of experimenting in methods of relating educational 
activities to the community life of Natives on the Reservations. 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 239 


GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 


Under the Native Commissioner a Director of Native Development was appointed 
in 1920. In this office Mr. Keigwin is doing a work of unique and outstanding 
educational importance which will have a marked and beneficial influence on the 
Natives living within the Colony. In him also the missionaries have a constant 
adviser and friend. In 1920 he started an industrial and agricultural school at 
Domboshawa, 20 miles north of Salisbury, and the following year an industrial school 
was opened at Tjolotjo, 72 miles west of Buluwayo and almost in the middle of two 
million acres which constitute the Gwaii and Nata Reserves. Except for a few kraal 
schools there is no missionary activity in the whole of this Native area. 


School at Domboshawa 


In its first year the school had 55 pupils from 18 to 20 years of age with two 
European instructors—one for woodwork and building, the other for agriculture, 
the latter being the most important part of the activities. It was hoped that the 
school would become a center where Natives could settle and form a productive 
industrial Native community. Some of the pupils left through alleged inability to 
pay the fee of £3 per annum in addition to the £1 tax, but by the end of 1924 the 
pupils had increased to 140 and farm work was much developed. It is to be hoped 
that the intention of the Director of Native Development may be realized and that the 
pupils trained at Domboshawa and Tjolotjo may find employment under the Govern- 
ment in the Native Reserves, where their knowledge and training will be able to 
influence directly the Native communities from which they have come. At present 
they mainly enter the service of Europeans in townships and on farms, but there is 
evidence that their work is already influencing the reserves. There is a strong reli- 
gious influence in the school, nearly all the boys being members of Christian Churches. 


School at Tjolotjo 


A year after its foundation the number of pupils at the Tjolotjo industrial school 
had risen to 99. A recent visitor gives an interesting picture of the school and its 
activities : 


The school at Tjolotjo is reached by motor car over a good road, partly built by the pupils, about 
30 miles from the railway line. The school buildings stand in a wide open space in the bush sur- 
rounded by the fields farmed by the pupils. The schoolrooms and dormitories were clean and 
well-aired and the discipline of the school appeared to be excellent, I was impressed by the way 
in which practical work on the farms and in the workshops is combined with class work, which is 
always given with regard to the former. The teaching given by the Native staff was good, and 
individual attention seemed to be given to each pupil. 

Besides the ordinary farm work there were also special branches in dairy work (milking, separating 
cream, making butter and cheese, stabling and feeding of selected cows) ; forestry (sowing of tree 
seeds, pricking out the seedlings, care in the beds, planting out, after care), hay making (cutting 
and stacking grass for winter food of stock), ensilage (digging silo pit, cutting and storing green 
crops in the pit for winter feeding of stock), pig-keeping, proper care of poultry and vegetable grow- 
ing. Special instruction was given to pupils in the construction and upkeep of windmills such as 
are used for the water supply in the Native Reserve. 


240 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The captain of the school is assisted by prefects for the schoolroom, kitchen, bathroom, dormi- 
tories and general cleaning, and for building and carpentry. The prefects are each responsible for 
the good condition of their part of the school work. They are given a number of pupils to carry 
out under them the different jobs at the different times appointed. 

There were four standards in the school, Standard III containing three classes and the others 
one class, The three carpentry classes each had 12 pupils, and three classes in building contained 
14 pupils each. In both classes the pupils did the necessary jobs in connection with the school. 

As soon as the various works of repair and reconstruction had been completed a competition 
between four groups of the whole school in building new dormitories had been arranged. The school 
was divided into four groups, as equal as possible, to see which group by their energy and good work 
would do the best. The builders were to make the 15,000 bricks required for each dormitory and 
the carpenters to cut their own timber and work it up as required. Records of the time worked 
were to be kept and a prize given to the winning group, marks being allotted for speed, good work- 
manship and finish. 

Every day starts with prayers and a Scripture lesson by the principal ; on Sundays 
there is a Bible class taken by the Native teachers and service with a sermon by the 
principal. 


Roman CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 


The Roman Catholic Missions report 122 schools of all classes, with 5,750 pupils 
qualifying for grants and 9,178 on roll. The 10 first-class schools have 866 pupils 
qualifying for grant, the 17 second-class schools have 1,587 qualifying pupils. The 
91 third-class schools have 3,603 qualifying pupils. There are also 4 evening 
schools with 194 pupils. These missions receive £3,856 from Government, the largest 
grant to any missions in the Colony. They report a general inspecting staff of 18 
Kuropeans and 54 European teachers. The total number of Native teachers is 
155. There is a training school for Native teachers at the Mission of Triashill. Some 
missionaries have provided for their own needs by giving special lessons to the more 
promising pupils. In the larger mission centers Native teachers are directed by some 
of the European staff. It is the usual practice to call in the out-school teachers near 
the central station for special instruction about once a week. The following institu- 
tions are described as typical of the central stations. 


Schools at Triashill, Monte Casino and St. Rachael 


These three central schools report a total of about 850 boarders, 120 day pupils 
and 2,400 pupils at 45 out-schools in the surrounding districts. Instruction is given 
by 18 European Fathers and Sisters and 53 Native teachers. The buildings at the 
boarding schools visited were mostly made of bricks. The central building at each 
boarding school is the church constructed by pupils under the direction of the Father 
and Brothers. Much of the instruction was purely religious. The teaching, especially 
that of the girls, appeared to be of a high standard, all the Sisters who gave instruction 
having special qualifications as teachers. Instruction was given in the vernacular 
and in English. Handwork, gardening and farming are included in the curriculum 
of all the schools. The schools are regularly inspected by the Head of the Mission, 
Bishop Fleischer of Marian Hill, and by the District Inspector, one of the Father 
Superiors. Each school is under one Rector, who visits all the different schools 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 241 


twice a year. There are about 30 permanent brick and iron buildings in the three 
stations, and the plant includes a number of farm implements, a water wheel and 
water pumps. 


Catholic Mission of Society of Jesus: St. Francis Xavier Mission 

This school is at Kutama, 48 miles from Salisbury. The present headmaster has 
been there for 10 years, and was previously engaged in the same work in Portuguese 
East Africa for a period of 15 years. He is assisted by 1 Native head teacher, 
5 assistant Native teachers, 1 carpentry instructor and 1 farm instructor. 
There are 130 boys and girls ; 80 boarders, living on the school premises, and the 
remainder come either from the Christian village or from pagan villages in the neigh- 
borhood. All the teaching is elementary and instruction is given in the vernacular 
with some lessons in English. The children play football or Native ball-games. 
Native music is not encouraged and all Native dances are forbidden. Religious 
teaching forms the main part of instruction, and the children and staff attend Mass 
every morning and service every evening. All the boarders are boys who live in one 
dormitory, well-aired and lighted. 

The school has a well equipped carpentry shop under a Native instructor. All 
tools used are such as the pupil can afterwards afford to buy. Planes and other tools 
are made at the school, with the exception of the blades. The lumber is cut on the 
land and made into planks in a sawpit by the boys. All the furniture used on the 
mission station in the school, church and European and Native houses is made in the 
school workshop. Special instruction is given to pupils in building according to the 
pisé de terre method. The houses are square with thatch roofs, wooden doors and 
window frames. There are two gardens attached to the school, where instruction 
is given in vegetable growing and irrigation by water-wheel. On the 6,000 acre 
farm, mealies, monkey nuts, pumpkins, potatoes and sweet potatoes are grown 
under direct supervision of the headmaster, Father Loubiére, who is also an expert 
carpenter and builder. The farm equipment includes 70 head of cattle and 20 donkeys, 
3 plows, 1 sheller, 1 planter, 2 cultivators and 1 flour mill worked by steam. 

The head of the mission station holds that Native Christians must live apart, 
as otherwise the pagan environment becomes too strong for the new convert who 
comes under the influence of the all-pervading fear of the witch-doctor. All the 
converts live in two model Native villages which are adjacent to the school com- 
pound. These villages consist of a number of square pisé houses, built on either side 
of a central road. Near each house is a square kitchen, and behind each house a 
store-house and chicken-house. At the top end of the central street is a roomy club- 
house. All the buildings were put up by the Natives, who have whitewashed them 
and thatched the roofs. The Natives living in the village work on the station farm 
for three months annually for regular wages, which enables them to pay their tax and 
secure clothes. In addition they all have farms of their own in the neighborhood, 
where they can grow their food. The cultivation of maize is encouraged, as this 
crop provides better food and is less used for making beer. 


242 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Dutcu REForRMED CHURCH OF SouTH AFRICA 


This important Mission maintains an effective educational work among the 
Mashona, with general headquarters at Morgenster, near the famous Zimbabwe 
Ruins. The Mission has two training schools, one at Morgenster and the other at 
Gutu; 5 station schools and 260 out-schools. In 1923 the mission staff included 
17 Europeans, of whom 9 were teachers; and 276 Native workers, of whom 90 
were qualified teachers. There has been a considerable increase in these figures in 
1924, The Director of Education reports 6 first class schools with 209 pupils qualify- 
ing for grant; 7 second class schools with 434 such pupils ; 260 third class 
schools with 9,393 pupils ; 1 evening school with 14 pupils. According to govern- 
ment reports this mission has the largest number of qualifying pupils amounting to 
10,050, out of an enrollment of 17,763. The government grant to the 274 schools 
of all classes amounted to £3,669 in 1923. The educational methods reflect a genuine 
regard for the needs of the Native people. The intimate knowledge of the African 
Native is shown in the practical character of the instruction and training provided. 
The Dutch staff from South Africa consists of men and women who have a thorough 
appreciation of farm life and the handicraft required in rural districts and in Native 
homes. The exhibit of school work at the Morgenster Conference, collected from 
the various stations, was an impressive presentation of the education and training 
provided for the Native community, not only in the ordinary schoolroom instruction, 
but in the cultivation of the soil, the care of the home and simple technical handi- 
craft. Great stress is laid upon the training of character through religious instruction 
and development of correct habits. 


Morgenster Station 


The activities and plant of this station are noteworthy both for the quality of its 
work and its influence on all the other stations. The departments in operation are 
as follows : teacher-training course, elementary school, technical shop, girls’ home, 
farm and garden. The church and school form the center of all the activities of the 
station. It is really a school community organized to instruct the pupils in the 
important phases of life. 


CyurcH oF ENGLAND MIssIons 


The mission work in the Church of England Diocese of Southern Rhodesia includes 
practically all the important towns as well as rural districts. The Director of Educa- 
tion reports a total of 185 schools of all classes, 7,887 pupils qualifying for grant and 
an enrollment of 18,606. Government grants-in-aid in 1923 amounted to £2,948. 
There are four first-class schools with 121 pupils qualifying for grant, seven second- 
class schools with 511 qualifying pupils, 169 third-class schools with 6,987 pupils 
qualifying, and 5 evening schools with 218 pupils qualifying. Thé European 
staff numbers 39, of whom 28 are teachers; the Native staff includes 212, of whom 
68 are qualified teachers. The training college for teachers is at St. Augustine’s 
Mission, Penhalonga, where promising pupils from the different schools go for a 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 243 


two-years course under the Community of the Resurrection. Most of the centers 
offer some teacher-training, and teachers are assembled for refresher courses of one 
week either annually or periodically. 


Penhalonga Training Institution 


The Training Institution at Penhalonga in the Umtali District is picturesquely 
situated among the hills with gardens and plantations stretching in all directions. 
Its natural beauty is heightened by good order and refinement in all the appoint- 
ments of the mission. The effect of this upon the Natives is said to be great. 
Vases of flowers were seen on the dining tables of the boys. There is a 
wonderful natural theater where addresses and plays are given to and by the pupils. 
Spotless order prevails in the church, the buildings of the training college, the schools, 
the mill and the workshops. Electric light has been installed. The dormitories, 
which consist of a number of huts with 16 or 17 beds in each, are kept clean and tidy 
by the pupils. The schools are under the direction of the Community of the Resur- 
rection, of Mirfield, England, assisted by devoted members of the sisterhood from 
St. Peter’s, Grahamstown, South Africa. In the boarding school there are 120 pupils 
with 6 European teachers and 2 Native. The following notes record the impressions 
of a recent visitor : 


The whole institution gave one the impression of being the work of a community who appreciated 
the influence of example, There are no apprentices and all the workshops exist for the benefit of 
the students. The manual occupations include carpentry, building and agriculture for the boys; 
laundry work, needlework and spinning for the girls, and gardening for both. The girls’ work is so 
arranged as to give each pupil a full year’s work of several hours a week in each craft. Some instruc- 
tion in tailoring, dairy work, boot making and mending is also given. The student teachers 
learn agriculture, building, carpentry and gardening, so that they may teach them to the people 
among whom they will work. The fees for teachers in training are £8 a year, but most of them 
have scholarships from friends in England. The boarding school boys pay £38 a year. 


St. Faith's Schools, Rusape 


St. Faith’s Schools are 9 miles from Rusape railway station, south-east of Salisbury. 
The Mission works among three tribes, the Mahongwe, Wamberi and Warozi. In 
the two large schools attached to the central station there are 229 pupils with 5 
Kuropeans and 3 Native teachers, and 37 out-schools with 21 sub-stations containing 
2,866 pupils and 87 Native teachers. Most of the out-schools are on the Makoni, 
Weiza, Chidukee or Wedza Reserves. Some are 60 miles or more from the nearest 
white township. The languages used are Chiswima and English. The central 
school, opened 20 years ago, has a boarding school with 42 pupils and a day school 
of 105. The curriculum includes the ordinary subjects, with the addition of hygiene 
and theoretical agriculture for boys, and the care of babies and of the sick for girls. 
The central school is visited by one of the government inspectors once a year and each 
out-school is inspected at least three times a year by officials from the central school. 
In addition, the senior teachers and eatechists have under their charge circles of out 
schools which they visit from time to time, helping the teachers in their work and 


244 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


seeing that the school is being run properly. An attractive picture of life in these 
schools is quoted in the paragraphs which follow : 


All the children, except those under seven years of age, help in sweeping the paths, watering the 
garden and caring for the dogs and poultry. The bigger children tease and card the wool for spinning, 
grind and sieve the clays for pottery and help to hold the calves at milking time. The vocational 
training for the boys includes agriculture, dairy work and animal husbandry, pottery, spinning and 
weaving, a little carpentry and smithy work, vegetable and flower gardening, and general work 
such as tree planting, brickmaking, building and roadmaking. 

In the agricultural section the boys are also taught to break in oxen, drive wagons, plough and 
use amowing machine, They also rear chickens and pigs and learn to cure bacon and hams. During 
the year 1923-24 crops of pumpkins, monkey nuts, mealies, velvet beans and sunflower for ensilage 
were grown and a good stack of veld hay was made. Flax and cotton were also grown. 

The girls are taught sewing, laundry work, spinning, weaving and dyeing, pottery and domestic 
work, The teaching of spinning and weaving is an important feature of the curriculum. The 
pupils are taught to put up and work a primitive loom. In one school a boy who was a pupil at 
St. Faith’s has made two primitive spinning wheels and others have followed his example, so that 
some 25 of the pupils and quite a number of adults are wearing strong cotton jerseys of their own 
manufacture. 

The busy time of the year is the “‘ baboon ” time, when in many places the gardens have to be 
watched from sunrise to sunset. This does not affect the central station of the Mission as there 
are few baboons near, but in the out-stations a holiday of five weeks is given for this reason in April 
and May. 

The training given at these schools is having a great effect on the character of the girl pupils, 
and when they leave school they are able to exert an influence not only on the family but on the 
whole life of the village in the way of sobriety, cleanliness and home handicrafts. These girls 
seldom marry pagan husbands and are greatly averse to becoming second wives. Most of the boys 
who are boarders at the school return eventually to their homes ; some of them go out to work to 
earn money to be able to go on to the school at Penhalonga to train as teachers, 

Football of an elementary kind is the favorite form of recreation and the girls play a Native 
form of hockey. The smaller children play many Native and English singing games in school and 
the teachers arrange dances, games and plays for the interschool competition at the annual show in 
July, Singing is a great feature in all the schools and drums are used at the central station to 
accompany the music at the big festival services. 


WESLEYAN METHODIST Mission 


This Society has several important missions in Mashonaland and Matabeleland. 
The Waddilove Training Institution at Nengubo prepares Native teachers for the 
various schools. The Government reports 154 schools of all classes, 6,421 pupils 
qualifying for grants, 8,960 on roll and £2,465 grant-in-aid. The European staff 
is 16 of whom 6 are teachers, the Native staff is 168 of whom 75 are qualified teachers. 
According to the classification of the Director of Education, there is one school of the 
first class with 120 qualifying pupils, three of the second with 215 qualifying pupils, 
137 of the third class with 5,728 qualifying pupils and 13 evening classes with 358 
qualifying pupils. The Mission has rendered a long and valuable service in the 
development of the Native people. 


Waddilove Institute 


The Training College of the Wesleyan Church is at Nengubo, about 124 miles 
from Marandellas station in the south-east district of Rhodesia. The farm, with a 





SOUTHERN RHODESIA 245 


large boarding school housed in substantial stone and brick buildings, is surrounded 
on three sides by European neighbors, but the fourth abuts on a Native Reserve 
which is about 14 miles from the house. 

The staff consists of a Principal and his wife, three European assistants and 
specialists for woodwork and agriculture, together with three Native teachers. The 
classification of pupils at the inspection in 1923 was as follows: Standard I, 33; 
Standard II, 26; Standard III, 84; Standard IV, 27; Standard V, 4; 
Standard VI, 2. 

In the Normal Department there are 51 pupils. The head teacher is a European 
graduate of wide experience. There is also an accomplished woman teacher who has 
obviously given much thought to modern developments in education. Some of the 
best teaching seen by the Commission was in the practising school of the Normal 
department. The Montessori principles of self-activity were being splendidly 
applied. 

Manual work is provided in the shape of agriculture and carpentry for the boys 
and needlework and spinning for the girls. In woodwork useful and practical service 
has been rendered by the manufacture of benches and desks and in the roofing of 
several buildings in addition to the completion of the models required by the Educa- 
tion Department. 

In connection with the institution there is a farm on which 180 cattle and the same 
number of sheep are run. Most of the food required for the institution is produced 
on the farm. The students take part in the farming operations. A suitable spot is 
available for experimental work which it is proposed soon to undertake. 

The dormitory conditions for boys are adequate and those for the girls are excel- 
lent. The school fees are £5 a year for boys and £4 plus £1 for uniform for girls. 
Excellent reports on the domestic training are given by the departmental inspectress. 

The institution is very efficiently run and has the reputation of being one of the 
best in Rhodesia. Up to the present the problem of bridging the gap which separates 
this kind of teaching and this way of living from that of the third class school and the 
Native village has not been solved. 

Through the kindness of the Principal a visit was paid to a third class school at 
work. It was regarded as being above the average and was worked with good will. 
But the notes taken at the time emphasized once more the emphatic need for super- 
vision and equipment if the educational influence of the smaller schools is to tell in 
African communities : 


‘The school, situated six miles from the central station, was held in a thatched room about 36 ft. 
by 18. The furniture consisted of three loose forms, a table and two blackboards. The teacher 
had passed Standard IV. Of the 42 children present 5 were in Standard II, 5 in Standard I, 9 in 
the senior infant class and 25 unclassified. Out of the 42 children 12 had slates ; 2 in Standard II 
had books ; there was no reading sheet or other apparatus for teaching. There was no manual work 
and no agriculture, The pupils are supposed to look after a few trees which have been planted 
near the school, The teacher receives £24 a year; the grant earned by the school was £8 in 1923, 
but is probably more now. The Native minister, who is untrained for school supervision, looks 
after this and 15 other schools. 


246 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


AMERICAN Metuopist EpiscopaLt Mission 


To the work of this Mission Cecil Rhodes gave over 13,000 acres of land near the 
eastern boundary of Southern Rhodesia. Some of this has been exchanged for land 
in Native areas where the Mission wished to work. The Mission is divided into 4 
districts. Old Umtali, 10 miles from Umtali township, has the central training school 
for the whole Mission with 5 American, 8 Native teachers and 125 boys. Connected 
with this institution is the Fairfield Girls’ Boarding School with 3 American women, 
3 Native teachers and 88 girls. The Mutambara Mission has a boys’ boarding school 
with 4 American teachers, 3 Native teachers and 145 boys. There is also a girls’ 
boarding school with 3 American women, 3 Native teachers and 144 girls. The 
Mrewa District has 1 boarding school with 1 American teacher, 4 Native teachers and 
165 boys and girls; a girls’ school with 1 American and 1 Native teacher and 108 
girls. The Director of Education reports 103 schools of all classes, 4,249 pupils 
qualifying for grants, 7,222 enrolled and government grant of £2,271. The schools 
of third grade are 91 with 3,669 qualifying pupils. There are also 3 evening schools 
with 52 qualifying pupils. The staff of American men and women number 24 of 
whom 17 are teachers ; the Native staffincludes 185 of whom 95 are qualified teachers. 
This Mission is making a serious effort to relate its educational activities to the needs 
of the people. Its agricultural training shares the highest rank with one other 
Mission in Southern Rhodesia. The boarding schools for Native girls are well equipped 
institutions under the supervision of capable American women sent out by the 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the M.E. Church. 


Old Umtali Training Institution 


The departments in this institution are literary, Biblical, teacher-training, agri- 
culture and woodwork. The boys and girls board and lodge separately, but are 
taught together; the teacher-training has recently been made co-educational. 
There is effective co-ordination between the general board and the Woman’s Society 
of the Mission, who jointly carry responsibility for the school program. 

The teacher-training department had, at the time of the visit of the Commission, 
only 22 pupils, 8 being in Standard V, the rest in Standard IV. All the men were 
preparing to be pastor-teachers. There is a practising school with 400 pupils, in 
which each student gets two to three months’ experience in the year. The fee for 
entrance is £7. Thereafter there is no fee for tuition, but the boys give half of each 
day at work to pay for their board and lodging. This plan is approved both by 
students and by the authorities. 

The paucity of pupils in the teacher-training course is explained by the exceed- 
ingly low standard of education in Rhodesia and the fact that a boy who has attained 
to Standard II can go to a town and receive more money than he would earn by 
becoming a pastor-teacher after passing Standard V. At present a few teachers 
have taken Standard V; there is a ruling that Standard If is the minimum for a 
pastor-teacher, but in a few cases among unreached people it has been necessary to 
take on supply teachers with only sub-standard education. A Native who has 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 247 


risen to Standard VI is said to be unusual. That the effort of the Mission to raise 
the grade of teachers is not without results is shown by the fact that whereas in 1922 
there were only 5 students in Standard V and none above it, there are to be in 1925 
20 in Standard V, 12 in Standard VI, and 5 in Standard VII. 

The manual training in the institution is supplementary to the teacher-training 
course; there are no apprentices. The work is designed to teach the simple industries 
which will help the Natives on their own farms, and is in process of reorganization to 
realize this important end. The agricultural work has outstanding merit, as the 
annexed extract shows : 


The teacher is a first-rate practical farmer who approaches this subject in a way that Natives ~ 
can understand, The experimental plots where he illustrates the value of tillage, of the use of a 
fertilizer and of careful weeding, are really educative. Many of the pupils have made money by 
growing potatoes and onions. Useful lessons are given in animal husbandry. The crown of the 
agricultural work is seen in the Native village where, with a splendid irrigation scheme, the Natives 
have been taught to produce vegetables for market, with the result that all the market gardening 
in the town of Umtali is now in the hands of Natives. Numbers of Natives may be seen going into 
town late at night and early in the morning carrying their produce. The mission has helped the 
Natives to help themselves. 


An interesting feature of the Mission is the Christian Natives’ Location, where 
the people are being taught to live in clean houses in village fashion but with proper 
sanitation. In this location a Mothers’ School is conducted by two missionaries’ 
wives, where, in addition to the ordinary school subjects, sewing and household 
sanitation are taught, and instruction is given in the care of children as to food, 
clothing, sleep and cleanliness. Mothers also learn to tell stories and are shown how to 
teach their children to play and to sing. The Mission has, of course, numerous 
religious activities. Mention should also be made of the printing press, the laundry, 
the orphanage for babies and the large fields of corn under cultivation. 


AMERICAN Boarp Misston (NoRTHERN Brancn) 


This excellent Mission was one of the earliest in South-Eastern Rhodesia and 
probably maintains the highest standard of instruction of any mission in the Colony. 
In contrast with many of the other missions, it adheres to the principle of intensive and 
well-directed school activities. Its staff includes 10 American men and women, of 
whom 7 are teachers. The Native staff consists of 42, of whom 16 are qualified. The 
Director of Education reports 22 schools of all classes with 1,506 pupils qualifying for 
grants, 2,033 on the roll and government grants amounting to £1,727. There are 
two schools of the first class with 236 qualifying pupils, and two of the second class 
with 857 qualifying pupils. The Mission has only 17 schools of the third class, with 
903 pupils. The effect of supervision is reflected in the large proportion of the pupils 
on the roll who qualify for grants-in-aid. The industrial and agricultural training at 
Mount Silinda, the central station, ranks with the best—possibly it is the best in 
the Colony. 


248 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Mount Silinda School. 

Mount Silinda School is situated in the south-east of Rhodesia, close to the 
Portuguese border and about 150 miles from Umtali. The Mission owns an area of 
34,000 acres in Rhodesia. Land was granted to the American Board by Cecil Rhodes 
in 1893. The buildings consist of a large church capable of seating about 9,000, two 
school buildings, dormitories for boys and girls, several workshops and the usual 
houses for the staff. All are well built and suitable for their purpose. The institu- 
tion is located strategically and will be a permanent educational force in the Colony. 
The boys of the boarding department are now governed by a student committee. 
There has been a decided mental and spiritual awakening among the students. 

The chief departments of the institution are a Bible School, a Teacher-Training 
Institution, a Hospital, second and third class day and boarding schools, tile and 
brick-making, woodwork and cabinet-making, domestic training and agriculture. 
Each department is under a responsible teacher, and controlling the work as a whole 
at present is a loosely-organized board. The school formerly had a principal in whose 
hands lay the direction of the whole work, but for the last 24 years the position 
has been vacant. 

The Bible School would better serve the Mission if its future evangelists were 
drawn from the younger teachers and such well-educated pupils from the school as 
have shown a genuine call to the ministry. A certain educational standard might 
with advantage be set up for entrance, in addition to the necessary qualifications in 
character and spiritual fitness. The general instruction would also gain if it were less 
on traditional lines and more related to the needs of the people. The students might 
well be taught to appreciate what is good in Native customs and songs. 

The teacher-training work is under the direction of a capable woman teacher, 
trained in America. There were 27 young women and 38 men in training on the 
occasion of the Commission’s visit, all receiving theoretical and practical teacher- 
training in addition to a good all-round education. There is a large practising school. 
Attention was being paid to English. Some American Negro folk-songs seemed to 
appeal to the students. The women in training and the senior girl students receive 
instruction in domestic science and home-making. The cooking is adapted to Native 
needs. In 1925 the station schools will be raised to Standard IV and the Training 
School to Standards V to VII; courses in industrial crafts and agriculture will be 
added. 

The manual training is excellent. Woodwork and agriculture are taken alter- 
nately. There were 72 students at work, each having five hours of agriculture and five 
of woodwork each week. Both the woodwork specimens required by the Education 
Department and the useful articles which Natives need in their own homes are made. 
The brick and tile-making plant is used for trade rather than for education. Agri- 
culture is on a large scale, over 200 acres being under cultivation. Theoretical and 
practical instruction are given, and each Native has his own seed-bed and vegetable 
allotment. 

There is a small hospital, with a well-stocked dispensary. There were in hospital 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 249 


15, and about 30 out-patients attend daily. A few Natives are being trained as 
dressers, and it is hoped to resume the training of nurses, though the number of 
those who offer for this work is small. 


Chikore Mission Station 


The school at Chikore, about 22 miles by bicycle path from Mount Silinda, is the 
headquarters of work in the sub-district. The central school and the out-schools 
have a large enrollment of pupils, of whom 400 are said to have declared themselves 
Christians, although few of the parents were inclined to Christianity. The boarding 
schools for boys and for girls have respectively 56 and 53 pupils. Of this station a 
member of the Commission writes : : 

If Chikore is typical of other stations, then the Mission is fortunate indeed. A capable missionary 
and his equally capable wife look after the station school of 825 pupils, 13 out-schools with an 
enrollment of over 900 pupils and two night schools for shepherds and other boys who cannot 
attend in the day time. The work in the station school was found to be very good. There was a 
friendly atmosphere, good for both teachers and pupils. This friendliness, however, is only a 
reflection of the spirit which characterizes the whole Mission. 


LonpDoN MIssIONARY SOCIETY 


This Mission, the first to enter Matabeleland, maintains a small but effective 
educational work. Many of the Native teachers with advanced training have been 
pupils at Tiger Kloof Institution in Northern Cape Colony. The educational and 
religious work is divided into four districts. The Director of Education reports a 
total of 74 schools, 3,062 pupils qualifying for aid, 3,836 on roll, and £1,055 in govern- 
ment grants. The Mission has one school of the first class with 56 pupils, two schools 
of the second class with 87 pupils, and 71 schools of the third class with 2,919 pupils. 


The Hope Fountain School for Girls 

This school, near Buluwayo, is a well-organized boarding institution, with instruc- 
tion and training related to the needs of Native girls. It has now 75 pupils. Work in 
the gardens forms an integral part of every girl’s daily occupation, and handwork of 
various kinds, including sewing, basketry and pottery, also has an important place 
in the curriculum. 


A recent visitor to Hope Fountain writes as follows : 


Other interests which play a large part in the girls’ regular life are the Sunday School and Bible 
classes ; also a newly formed Branch of the Girls’ Guildry, team games, tennis, basket-ball, concerts 
and choral singing. In all its activities the disciplined freedom which marks the conduct of the school 
gives an impression of that ‘ cheerful self-respect ’? upon which a Government Inspector has com- 
mented. Most assuredly the school will be a powerful influence for good in the homes in which 
these girls will one day be wives and mothers. The instruction given includes the ordinary school 
course up to Standard VI. of the Southern Rhodesian Educational Code, laundry and housewifery, 
basket making, pottery, and practical experience in domestic duties in the school buildings and in 
the houses of the missionaries. Each girl does something out of doors, such as cleaning roads, 
gardening, sowing or harvesting. In such ways the girls learn that manual labor has its own 
worth. An effort is thus made to check the tendency to value unduly the white man’s book 
knowledge. 


250 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The Inyati Boys’ Boarding School 


This institution is being developed on industrial and agricultural lines, but is 
now awaiting the report of the Government Education Commission before reorganizing 
its work. 


OTHER MIssIons 


There are eight smaller Missions with a number of schools in various party of the 
Colony. All are exerting an educational influence of value to the Natives and some are 
remarkably effective in the quality of their work. Unfortunately, it is not possible to 
give details of all of them. They have already been included in the list on a previous 
page and their more important statistics have been presented. It is interesting that 
one Mission belongs to the Church of Sweden. According to the Report of the 
Director of Education for 1923, the grants-in-aid for these societies amounted to 
£1,528. The schools of the first and second class were 15, with 486 pupils qualifying 
for grants; the schools of the third class were 140, with 3,708 pupils qualifying for 
grants. It is obvious that these smaller societies should correlate their work with the 
larger societies. Their staff of 40 Europeans and 249 Native teachers, of whom 87 
are qualified, is undoubtedly able to render a usefui service in the training of the large 
masses of Natives still lacking school facilities. 


III. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The perplexing problems of racial adjustments, the numerous needs of Native 
people, the great potentialities of the Colony and the devoted services of missionaries, 
all support the statesmanship of Sir John Chancellor, the Governor, in the following 
significant pronouncement at the opening of the First Legislative Assembly of 
Southern Rhodesia : 


It is to education and to education of the best type, and in congenial surroundings, that we must 
look both as a reproductive investment of our funds and as an inherent and grave responsibility of 
self-government conferred on us by His Majesty the King. 


The serious consideration now accorded to Native welfare and education in 
Southern Rhodesia promises much for the future. The Government Commission 
on Native education has both a great responsibility and a notable opportunity to 
serve not only the Natives, but also the safety and progress of the Colony. They 
will doubtless find that effective education of the Natives is conditioned by many 
forces other than those usually associated with schools and missions. First of all is 
the relation of the Natives to the land, both within the Reserves and in adjoining 
areas. The elimination of preventable diseases and the establishment of conditions 
necessary to the normal increase of Native population are essentials of sound economics 
and effective trusteeship. The organization of Native Councils on the lines of the 
Transkeian Territory is a wise and really necessary provision for many important 
reasons. Arrangements for the economic and physical development of the Reserves, 
such as roads, water supply, market facilities, may be the deciding factors between 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 251 


the success and failure of Native communities. | Without thoroughgoing analysis 
of the conditions that make or mar the Native people, the devoted services of missions 
may be seriously hampered, and the money expended by Government may be futile. 

The Colony is fortunate in the quality and variety of mission schools. Almost 
every phase of education adapted to the needs of the Native may be found in one or 
more of the schools. Two mission stations have the best agricultural training seen 
in any part of Africa. Many missions provide some instruction in agricultural and 
industrial skill. The education of Native girls and women is well done in several 
schools, village and home handicraft are ingeniously and genuinely taught by the 
stations of one mission, and a number of missions make some provision for handicraft 
and gardening. Most important of all, is the training of character through religious 
instruction and practice in the daily contacts of the mission and schools. Nor is 
intellectual development overlooked. As rapidly as possible the schools are helping 
the Native to understand the great lessons both of history and of the elements of 
science. 

Genuine appreciation of existing schools for Natives requires cooperation of Goy- 
ernment and missions in the determination of the essentials for the improvement 
and extension of educational organizations and influences. The children of 800,000 
Native people are approximately 160,000 in number. At the most liberal estimate, 
less than half of this number are in any kind of school. The 1,000 little out-schools 
and their 62,000 children leave only about 8,000 children, or 5 per cent. of the total, 
in 86 schools of the first and second class ; these are almost the only schools worthy 
of recognition according to European or American standards of education. Reference 
to the chapter on Educational Administration shows emphatically the potentialities 
of the out-schools as well as the methods that have been successful in realizing these 
potentialities. 

It is of little value to describe the reasons for their existence or to relate their 
achievements under great limitations of staff and funds. Sound policy is to discover 
the means andthe methods to enable them to exert the educational influence so acutely 
needed for the improvement of the Native masses in health, agricultural and industrial 
skill, the decencies of home, healthful recreation and sound character. 

The organization of two Native schools by the Government should be weleomed 
by all as an evidence of real interest in the Native people. The objectives and adapta- 
tions of education reflected in the principles and methods of these two schools are 
among the most interesting and significant observed in all Africa. In view of the 
power of educational traditions, and the numerous difficulties of any new enterprise, 
these two institutions have been surprisingly successful. It is exceedingly unfortunate 
that misunderstandings arising from various causes have at times embarrassed, and 
even threatened, the progress of this government effort in educational adaptations. 
The most apparent cause of the difficulty seemed to be a feeling of rivalry and 
competition supposed to exist between missions and Government, and between the 
Government Department of Education and the Native Affairs Department supporting 
and directing the government schools. Frequent mention was made of the £7,500 


252 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


spent by the Native Department for its two schools as against the £16,000 or £19,000 
given by the Education Department to all the mission schools of the Colony. The 
proper comment on this competitive attitude would seem to be “ This ought ye to 
have done and not to have left the other undone.” Reference to some other Colonies 
reveals similar feelings, sometimes by Government toward appropriations for missions, 
and sometimes, as here, on the part of missions towards a government department. 
It is most important that the value of government participation in Native education 
shall be so clearly recognized as to eliminate all sense of competition, and that the 
supplementary relationship of government and mission schools shall be regarded as 
normal and desirable. 

Government costs for education are known to be higher than those of missions in 
every part of the world. This is partly explained by the recognition of the overhead 
charges and partly by the more normal salaries which Government must pay. Their 
costs in Rhodesia have been emphasized by the failure to analyze properly the objec- 
tives for which the £7,500 have been expended. The actual amount spent on the 
two government schools in 1923-24 was £4,760. The difference between this sum 
and £7,500 was for the various forms of governmental activities on behalf of the 
Natives. As a matter of fact, the total sum is amply justified on the basis of experi- 
mental education in the Reserves. With full recognition of the effective educational 
activities maintained in a number of mission schools, and the real value of practically 
all mission education, it must be recognized that the general principle of adapting 
education to the simple needs of the Native people has been too largely overlooked. The 
excellent features of education realized in certain mission schools are not sufficiently 
emphasized for others to adopt them as examples. In some instances, missions seem 
not to realize the significance of their own successful departments. The organization 
of the government schools has stimulated the discussion of educational adaptation 
and centered attention on those departments of mission schools that have been especi- 
ally successful in agriculture, industry and the community needs of the Native people. 
Government schools are differentiated from mission schools in that the Government 
has definitely striven to make every part of the school contribute to the training of 
the Natives for their responsibilities in the Reserves. Even though these schools 
have not yet attained the desired standards, they represent an educational policy 
that deserves to be encouraged both by Government and missions. 

The wise policy for the immediate future demands a sincere correlation of mission 
schools with each other and with government schools. It is evident that Government 
cannot disregard the extensive experience of mission schools, the lower cost of ad- 
ministration, the permanency and continuity of their work and their intimate know- 
ledge of the Native people. It is equally evident that government participation in 
Native education is essential. The authority and resources of Government will be 
increasingly required to extend education so that all may have the opportunities 
needed. The division of the authority and responsibility of Government for schools 
between two Departments is obviously unwise. Arrangement should be made to 
combine the intimate knowledge and long experience of the Native Affairs Depart- 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 253 


ment as regards Native affairs with the technical knowledge of the Education 
Department. 

The almost universal tendency of Education Departments with responsibility for 
European and Native education is to neglect the latter for the former. The over- 
whelmingly larger proportion spent on European youth points to this danger in 
Southern Rhodesia. The too distinct separation of Native education from that of the 
Europeans not only tendsto differentiation in the expenditure of funds, but also to dis- 
crimination as regards the quality of schoolwork. It seems, therefore, that the centering 
of educational authority in one Department should be accompanied by a guarantee 
of the active and genuine cooperation of the other Department. The experience 
in South Africa suggests the wisdom of organizing a Division of Native Education 
under the Department of Education. This Division could then draw upon the 
resources and experience of all Government Departments and especially that of 
Native Affairs, as well as on the large activities of missions. The following re- 
commendations are suggested for the consideration of those who are responsible for 
Native education in Southern Rhodesia : 

1. The consensus of educational opinion in the Colony seems to favor the organ- 
ization of a Sub-Department of Native Education under the Education Department. 
A Chief Inspector of Native Education should have charge of this Division. This 
officer should be highly qualified, not only in the general field of education, but in 
knowledge of Native communities and experience with them. He should believe in 
their potentialities and have a sympathetic understanding of their characteristics. 
Both the Chief Inspector and his assistants should know at least one of the Native 
languages. 

2. An Advisory Committee on Native Education should be appointed as soon 
as possible to unite the energies and wisdom of all who are concerned in Native 
development. This Committee should represent the mission societies, settlers and 
Government and, as soon as possible, the Natives themselves. In view of the special 
responsibility of the Governor for Natives, it is important that his authority and 
responsibility shall be represented on the Committee. The smaller missions must 
probably depend upon the larger societies to present their point of view. 

3. The extensive educational responsibility of missions obviously requires larger 
financial support. Expenditures for government schools and for supervision should 
not be regarded as competitive with those for missions. The mission and government 
activities, properly organized, will be mutually helpful. Grants-in-aid to missions 
should be strictly conditional on the quality and quantity of work done. Economy 
and efficiency require that Government shall encourage only those schools, whether 
governmental or mission, that contribute directly to the improvement of the Native 
people in health, agriculture, industry, home life and character development. 

4, The widely distributed mission schools of all grades, and especially the third 
class or out-schools, numbering almost a thousand, require the immediate organization 
of a supervisory system to assist them to realize their possibilities. Methods of 
supervision are described at length in the chapter on ‘‘ Educational Administration.” 


254 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The system of Native visiting teachers is urgently needed in Southern Rhodesia. 
The two government schools and the more advanced mission schools should correlate 
their instruction and training for the preparation of this type of teacher. The plan 
adopted in Kenya Colony of sending mission pupils for special training to a government 
school is recommended for the consideration of educational authorities in Rhodesia. 

5. The mission systems of the Colony usually provide a central institution for the 
training of teachers, a mission station under European supervision and a series of 
out-schools. In several of the systems the out-schools are so numerous as to defeat 
any possibility of adequate supervision. In these cases the Blantyre Mission system 
is strongly urged, which provides for the development of centrally located out-schools 
to a higher standard, with capacity for supervision of the out-schools about them. 
This organization is described at length in the chapter on “* Educational Administra- 
tion.” In the course of time, with the evolution of the present school facilities, the 
Colony will require a central institution for pupils who have completed the highest 
requirements of existing schools. Those responsible for education must then consider 
the policy of assisting such pupils to continue their education at Fort Hare Native 
College, or of cooperating with neighboring Colonies in the organization of a central 
institution. In some way facilities must be provided for the training of Native 
leadership. If this is not done an adequate system of education for the masses in the 
Colony can never be developed. 

6. The urgent need for the services of Native workers, trained in hygiene and 
sanitation, agricultural and industrial activities and in teaching, related to the life 
of Natives in the Reserves, suggests the importance of a government extension plan 
which will provide maintenance and supervision for such Native workers throughout 
the Native Reserves. This would enable those who have profited by instruction 
and training received in mission and government schools to return to their people 
rather than to seek employment among Europeans. 

7. The terms of reference defined by the Governor for the Commission, appointed 
in August 1924 to inquire into education in all its bearings, indicated a genuine recog- 
nition of the relation of education to the needs of the people. The educational 
objectives to be investigated include hygiene and medical treatment, agriculture 
and stock-raising, industrial skill, general economic and moral development, and the 
uplift of Native women with special attention to mothercraft. 


CHAPTER XI 
NORTHERN RHODESIA 


HE great inland empire of Northern Rhodesia, with its vast plateau 4,000 feet 

above sea level and its favorable climate, ranks with the best and the greatest 
of the African colonies in soil potentialities, but lags behind the smallest and the 
most unproductive in output and exports. Colonial progress depends directly and 
emphatically upon the development of the sparse Native population through an 
educational statesmanship that provides for hygiene and sanitation, agricultural 
and industrial skill, the decencies of home life, healthful recreations and character 
development. British foresight and imagination will soon recognize the wisdom of 
establishing means of communication between the various sections of this great 
country and the outside world. Fortunately the western section is already traversed 
by the Cape to Cairo Railway, uniting the land and its people with the civilization of 
the Sub-Continent. The internal problems of trusteeship have long been the con- 
sideration of the missions who have organized and maintained schools throughout 
the country for many years. These societies, now fifteen in number, began with 
the activities of the Paris and London Missionary Societies forty years ago. Though 
they are exceedingly diverse in religious organization and beliefs, both Roman 
Catholics and Protestants are working with remarkable accord for the improvement 
of the Native people. Government officers have for years worked with skill and 
devotion under great difficulties of changing administration and authority. The 
recently established Colonial Government gives promise of continuity of policy 
directed vigorously to the development of the people and the country. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Northern Rhodesia was transferred from the British South Africa Company to 
the Colonial Office in April, 1924. Its area, amounting to 291,000 square miles, extends 
from Belgian Congo on the North to Southern Rhodesia and from Nyasaland and 
Portuguese East to Portuguese West Africa. Of the British area in Africa, only 
Nigeria and Tanganyika are larger. It is equal to about twice the size of California, 
or nearly six times the size of England. The Native population in 1921 was estimated 
at 980,000, the Europeans about 4,000, less than 100 Asiatics and about 150 colored 
people. A narrow extension of Belgian Congo almost divides the country and its 
people into two approximately equal sections. The remoteness of Livingstone, the 
capital, from extreme eastern sections such as Fort Jameson, Fife and Abercorn, and 
the proximity of these eastern centers to Nyasaland and Tanganyika, have been sug- 
gested as the basis of a rearrangement or correlation of British colonial authority. 

255 


256 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


THE The Native population of less than a million is sparsely distributed 
PEOPLE throughout the Protectorate with a density of about 3 to the square mile. 

The number of tribes has been given as 28 in the north-eastern section 
and 81 in the north-west. About a third of the Native population are in five large 
tribes. The Barotse of the western section are said to be superior to all others in 
the development of tribal organization. The Angoni, in the north-east, are a branch 
of the Zulu warriors who formerly raided the country over large areas. The Native 
population of North-Eastern Rhodesia is divided into five districts as follows :—East _ 
Luangwa, bordering on Nyasaland, 190,763; Tanganyika District, adjoining the 
Lake, 90,280; Awemba, 108,466; Mweru-Luapula, 98,400; and Serenji, 28,143. 
The populations of the north-western districts are :—Barotse, on the extreme western 
boundary, 177,679; Batoka, containing Livingstone the capital, situated on the 
southern boundary, 95,398; Kafue, in the center, 49,794; Luangwa, 89,048 ; 
Kasempa, 44,458. 

There is some doubt as to whether the population is increasing or decreasing. 
The infant death rate is known to be exceedingly high. The large migration of 
Native men to the mines of Broken Hill, Southern Rhodesia and the Congo is a heavy 
drain upon the population. This migration is stimulated not only by a better wage, 
enabling the Natives to pay the high hut tax, but also by the absence of markets 
and other discouragements to agriculture in their tribal areas. The concentration 
of Europeans in a few districts of the vast Protectorate deprives the Natives of the 
influence of example in farming as well as of the opportunity for work. These con- 
ditions, as well as the general undeveloped conditions of the country, have all tended 
to leave the Native in a backward condition. Many of the influences brought back 
by the men who have worked in the mines tend to destroy tribal restraints and to 
introduce diseases and immorality. 

There is some concern both among missionaries and government officials as to 
the principles and methods for the delimitation of Native Reserves. As yet, only the 
Barotse district has been legally designated as a Reserve. The chief is nominated 
by the people, who are represented by the Council, according to the tribal law. This 
Council has jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases when both parties are Natives. 
The appointment of the Chief must be confirmed by the Governor and the taxes are 
collected by government officials. About 10,000,000 acres are said to have been 
alienated to Europeans. A number of districts have been suggested as Reserves. 
Evidence presented in the proceedings of the General Missionary Conference for 
1922 indicates that many of the Reserves are neither healthy nor fertile. The tsetse 
fly renders many of the areas uninhabitable. In view of the anxiety on behalf of the 
Natives it has been suggested that the limitation of land should be for Europeans 
rather than for the Natives, thus leaving to them the whole Colony with the exception 
of the smaller areas reserved for Europeans. As in the case of the Southern Rhodesia 
Constitution, so the Northern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1924, includes “* Restric- 


tive Regulations’ as regards Natives. The more important of these are copied 
here : 


NORTHERN RHODESIA 257 


No conditions, disabilities or restrictions which do not equally apply to persons of European 
descent shall, without the previous consent of a Secretary of State, be imposed upon Natives (save 
in respect of the supply of arms, ammunition and liquor) by any Proclamation, Regulation or other 
instrument issued under the provisions of any law, unless such conditions, disabilities or restrictions 
shall have been explicitly prescribed, defined and limited in such Law. 

A Native may acquire, hold, encumber and dispose of land on the same conditions as a person 
who is not a Native, but no contract for encumbering or alienating land the property of a Native 
shall be valid unless the contract is made in the presence of a magistrate, is attested by him and 
bears a certificate signed by him stating that the consideration for the contract is fair and reasonable, 
and that he has satisfied himself that the Native understands the transaction. 

No Native shall be removed from any kraal, or from any land assigned to him for occupation, 
except after full inquiry by, and by order of, the Governor. 

If any person without such order removes, or attempts to remove, any Native from any kraal 
or from any land unless in execution of the process of a competent Court, he shall in addition to any 
other proceeding to which he is liable be guilty of an offence against this Order, and on conviction 
before the High Court shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labor for any period 
not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding £100, or to both. 


Native taxation has received much consideration by all who are interested in 
the Natives. Bishop May of North-eastern Rhodesia, in an address before the 
General Missionary Conference in 1922, described the rate of taxation at that 
time as a hardship bearing heavily on the Natives. Some of the tribes in North- 
western Rhodesia were able to pay the taxes without undue effort. The consensus 
of opinion seems to be that the high taxation was largely responsible for the large 
exodus of able-bodied men seeking work in other colonies. Information from official 
sources was reported by the Bishop as confirming the opinion of the missionaries that 
the high taxation leading to the migration of the men had numerous bad effects among 
which are the “breaking up of family and village life” and the general disruption of 
Native organization. It is believed that the newly organized Government directly 
under the Colonial Office will solve this problem in accordance with the principles of 
justice. 


THE The physical wealth of Northern Rhodesia is chiefly in the very 
COUNTRY extensive plains of high altitude comprising at least two-thirds and 

possibly three-fifths of the total area. These plains occupy the water- 
shed between the river systems of the Congo and the Zambesi. With the exception 
of river valleys, the Protectorate has an altitude of 4,000 feet, and over a considerable 
part of the north-east section attains a general altitude of 5,000 feet and upwards. 
These high altitudes, together with a latitude that extends almost to the temperate 
zone, explain the moderate character of the climate in many districts. The Pro- 
tectorate is also favored in the number of river systems. 

The chief physical obstacles to the development of the country hitherto have 
been, first, lack of internal transportation and communications with other parts of 
Africa and the sea, and second, the infection of considerable areas by the tsetse 
fly. Reference has already been made to the absence of adequate training of the 
Natives for their responsibilities as a further explanation of the undeveloped con- 


258 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


dition of the country. It seems probable that connections will in the course of 
time be made with the ocean by way of Tanganyika in the north-east and Nyasaland 
in the south-east, and still larger facilities by the railway already extending through 
the western section southward to Beira and Cape Town and northward into Belgian 
Congo. Vigorous sanitary measures, new scientific discoveries and intensive cul- 
tivation of the soil will probably limit the areas infected by the tsetse fly. 

The exports for 1923 amounted to £463,000, the lowest of all the British Colonies 
except Nyasaland ; even Gambia and Zanzibar were greatly in excess of this sum. 
The items of export were: cattle to the Congo, £58,000; maize to the Congo, £42,000 ; 
tobacco, £62,000; lead, £190,000; rubber, £11,000; gold, £4,000. In 1922 the 
export of lead from the Broken Hill mines amounted to £449,000. The decrease in 
1923 is explained by the reconstruction of the plant. Unfortunately the total value 
of the imports, amounting to £528,000, were in excess of the value of the exports. 


EUROPEAN The Portuguese explorer, Dr. Lacerda, visited Northern Rhodesia in 
INFLUENCES 1798. There were, however, no results from this visit except a record 
of the journey. Livingstone arrived in the Barotse Valley in 1855, 
and soon afterwards discovered the great Zambesi Falls now known as Victoria Falls. 
Arab slave raids are said to have begun about the time of Livingstone’s visit and 
continued until 1898. The missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Mission entered the 
Barotse country in 1884, The administrative history of the Protectorate began 
with the British South Africa Company in 1889. The administration of the north- 
eastern and north-western sections of the Colony was organized in 1899 and 1900. 
In 1911 the two sections were amalgamated, and in 1921 the Administrator of Southern 
Rhodesia became also Administrator of Northern Rhodesia. Finally, in April, 1924, 
the Territory was organized as the Northern Rhodesia Protectorate under the Colonial 
Office. The present Government, with headquarters at Livingstone, has the usual 
administrative divisions of British Colonial Governments. There are magistrates, 
district. commissioners, assistant magistrates and Native commissioners who are 
assisted by Native chiefs. Effort is made to use tribal organizations in the Govern- 
ment. Native chiefs and a few of the headmen receive a small subsidy from the 
public funds. The Governor is assisted by a Legislative Council who prepare and 
pass legislation for the control of the Protectorate. It is directed that all ordinances 
passed by the Legislative Council shall respect the Native law and custom except 
so far as such customs may be incompatible with the exercise of His Majesty’s powers. 
The activities of Government are roughly indicated by the following analysis of the 
estimated expenditures of 1924-5 : 
Total estimated expenditure . . »« + + + © *© # «© * . £364,233 
I. Education, health and agriculture . . . . + + ~ £60,153 
Education, £9,287 ; health, £30,863 ; agriculture, £3,563 ; 
veterinary, £16,440, 
II. Administration Ee eT en a ee 
Governor, £6,015 ; secretariat, £7,514 ; district admini- 
stration, £95,789; legal and judicial, £7,500. 


116,818 


NORTHERN RHODESIA 259 


III. Military and Police’. 9... 0.5.04 2.~ 
Police, £50,890 ; military, £833; prisons, £13,000. 

LV SC ODIUC SV ORR GMM oT L) eNO Ue 50,188 
Public works, £23,833; posts and telegraphs, £22,700 ; 
transport and supplies, £3,650, 


£64,723 


Total expenditures, amounting to £364,000, exceed the revenue by about £100,000. 
Of the revenues received practically £100,000 are from Native taxes and registration. 
The expenditures for education, health and veterinary service constitute about 17 per 
cent. of the total. The £9,300 expended for education is spent almost entirely on 
schools for Europeans. The government school for the Barotse tribe is maintained 
out of the proceeds of Native taxation. No grants-in-aid are given to missions and 
no provision is made for Natives except the one Barotse school. It is not possible to 
differentiate the other expenditures as regards Europeans and Natives. The estimates 
for administration and courts include almost a third of the total expenditures, a 
relatively high proportion as compared with other Colonies. The cost of police, 
military and prisons exceeds that for education, health and agriculture. It is believed 
that an effective system of schools would diminish the need for these expenditures. 
The proportion for public works, posts, telegraphs and transportation is much lower 
in view of the undeveloped condition of the country. 

The great excess of expenditure over revenue is an exceedingly serious problem 
for the Governor and his assistants. Without the investment of considerable sums 
of money, the progress of the Colony must be exceedingly slow. In comparison 
with other Colonies, it would appear that the vast resources of cultivable soil and 
favorable climate are substantial basis for financial loans to initiate the required 
developments. It is believed that the primary purposes of these loans should be 
to extend the means of communication and to encourage educational facilities for 
the improvement of the Native population in health, agricultural and industrial 
skill, and character development. 

The 4,000 Europeans are distributed at several centers throughout the Protec- 
torate. The chief of these are Livingstone with 774 Europeans and 4,000 Natives, 
and Broken Hill with 396 Europeans and 5,000 Natives ; Fort Jameson, the com- 
mercial headquarters of the eastern section, and Abercorn the headquarters for the 
Tanganyika District. The Broken Hill mines employ about 5,000 Natives. In 
1922 the number of Europeans engaged in agriculture was said to be 714. The 15 
missionary societies supervised by 205 men and women are distributed throughout 
the whole Protectorate, expending considerable sums of money and devoting their 
energy and ability with a heroism that commands the admiration of all who under- 
stand the significance of their services. 


Il. EDUCATION 


The educational responsibility of Northern Rhodesia is the provision of educational 
facilities for about 200,000 Native children very widely distributed throughout the 
great Protectorate. The most liberal estimate of those in any kind of school is 


260 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


about 50,000, of whom all but 600 are in mission schools. According to European 
standards it is probable that less than 10,000 children are in schools of a satisfactory 
grade. The Government maintains the Barotse national school with 260 boarding 
boys and 7 out-schools, with an attendance of about 850 pupils. There is also a very 
small government location school with 40 pupils. The 15 mission societies report 
72 mission stations, 1,500 schools, 47,600 pupils, 205 European workers, 1,600 Native 
teachers. The geographical distribution of school facilities is roughly indicated 
by the following comparisons of children of school age with the number reported 
in schools by the various missions : 


1. East Luangwa, adjoining Nyasaland, 40,000 children, of whom 21,500 are reported in the 
schools of the Dutch Reformed Mission, Free Church of Scotland, Jesuit Fathers and White Fathers. 

2. Tanganyika District, on the Lake, 18,000 children, of whom 18,000 are in the schools of the 
London Missionary Society, the Free Church of Scotland and White Fathers. 

3. Awemba, 21,000 children, of whom 1,800 are in the schools of the Free Church of Scotland 
and the White Fathers. 

4, Mweru-Luapula, 20,000 children, of whom 6,200 are in the schools of the Universities’ Mission, | 
Garanganze, the Seventh Day Adventists and White Fathers. 

5, Serenje, 5,600 children, of whom 1,250 are in the schools of the Free Church of Scotland and 
Universities’ Mission. 

6. Barotse in the extreme west, 35,500 children, of whom 2,000 are in the schools of the Paris 
Mission, Government and the South Africa General Mission. 

7. Batoka, with Livingstone, the seat of the Government, 19,000 children, of whom 1,900 are 
in the schools of the Paris Mission, Jesuit Fathers, Primitive Methodist, Brethren in Christ and Church 
of Christ. 

8. Kafue, 10,000 children, of whom 720 are in the schools of the Primitive Methodists. 

9. Luangwa West, 18,000 children, of whom 4,200 are in the schools of the Jesuit Fathers, 
Wesleyans, Seventh Day Adventists, Universities’ Mission and South African Baptists. 

10, Kasempa, 9,000 children, of whom 500 are in the schools of Garanganze Mission and South 
’ Africa General Mission, 


. These reports indicate the very small proportion of school children in the western 
districts and in Awemba, practically only 10 per cent. of the total. In other districts 
the proportion is much larger, amounting to about one-third of the total. This is 
explained by the very large number reported by the Dutch Reformed Mission in 
East Luangwa. The influence of the effective school systems maintained by the 
Free Church of Scotland in Nyasaland is also clearly seen in the comparatively 
large number of children reported in some adjacent districts. 

In a report dated November, 1924, the Acting Inspector of Schools in Northern 
Rhodesia writes : 


On the whole, though it cannot be denied that the Natives of Northern Rhodesia are generally 
uneducated, and though it must be admitted that the average village school is at present of little 
or no value from the educational point of view, it may be confidently asserted that the missionaries 
of this territory have already laid on and in the vicinity of their stations foundations on which, 
given the necessary organization, direction and financial assistance, a sound system of Native 
education might rapidly be raised. . . From the vast majority of the missionaries of this country 
hearty cooperation in any progressive scheme for the general as well as the purely religious welfare 
of the Natives may be anticipated, 


PLATE XXXI 


Sulplvog. 


‘ 


“Tysotaq | ‘Jooyos 


Spry ‘juourjredagq Areurtsg (9) f onye yy ‘osnoyzy s,pedrourtg (q) § onye 


SEED) “prvdjinoy uoissy, oT, (a) £ Tysoseqyy ‘Aajuodaey (p) £ tysoraqyy ‘ooyos 


M ‘ssulplme uorssipy (7) 


VISHGOHY NYHHLUON NI NOLLV,LS NOISSIW V 





XXXII 


PLATE 


“IME PATIVN Sosnoyy punoy, s.suesy Jory) (Pp) 
£ apnypoyy “Suvsy yoryyg Aq qpIng__ pooy—s (2) f oapnyooyy UMOT, SIY puB Sues] Jory) (q) pure (v) 


GNVIVNVOHOUE NI 





NORTHERN RHODESIA 261 


PROTESTANT MISSIONARY SOCIETIES 


Paris Evangelical Mission 

The missionaries of this Society entered Barotscland in 1884 and were the 
pioneer missionaries of the country. The European staff has included men of devo- 
tion and distinguished ability who have exerted a notable influence on the Barotse 
people. Foremost among these is Francois Coillard, one of the most heroic figures 
in the noble company of missionaries in Africa. The Teacher-Training School of the 
Paris Mission at Sefula is said to be one of the best institutions in Western Rhodesia. 
The report for 1928 shows a staff of 27 Europeans, 7 European stations, 56 out-schools, 
74 Native teachers and an average attendance of 1,530. 


Dutch Reformed Church 

* This Mission maintains an extensive work in the south-eastern section imme- 
diately to the west of Fort Jameson. There is also a small mission at the Broken 
Hill Mine with a successful wicker chair industry. There is a central training 
school for teachers in the eastern district and special instruction for junior teachers 
is arranged at five other stations. In 1923 the Mission reported 350 Native teachers 
and an average attendance of about 16,000. Their work shows the practical character 
of their activities as described in the Dutch Reformed Missions of Nyasaland. Their 
Nyasaland printing press supplies the mission with numerous booklets in the 
vernacular. Some of these books deal with hygiene and sanitation. Effort is 
made to have out-schools visited by an European staff twice a year and by Native 
inspectors more frequently. 


London Missionary Society 

The stations of this Society are in the extreme north-east section between Lake 
Mweru and the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. Their report for 1924 shows 6 
stations, 10 Europeans, about 450 Native teachers, an enrollment of over 13,000, and 
an average attendance of about 7,000. The Mission entered Northern Rhodesia in 
1887, and has exerted an important influence among the Natives. The Mbereshi 
Boarding School for Girls, more fully described in a later chapter, is said to be one of 
the best in that part of Africa. The 83 girls ‘ live as nearly as possible an ordinary 
village life, and the work of the compound is done by them.’? Through classroom 
instruction and practice the girls are trained to deal more effectively with the respon- 
sibilities of village life. There is also an industrial department for boys and men at 
the Mbereshi station where they are taught carpentry, ironwork andivory turning. At 
Kambole instruction is given not only in books, but in cotton growing, carpentry, 
blacksmithing, tailoring and various smaller activities such as basketry, plastering 
and rope-making. Soap-making has also been tried with some success. A recent 
Deputation from the home society: reports the need for a central normal school to 
provide more adequate training for the Native teachers required in the numerous out- 
schools, and steps are being taken to supply this need. The wise observations and 


criticisms of this Deputation are applicable to every mission in the Protectorate. 
K 


262 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


They are in keeping with the educational standards so well known in the school 
administration of the London Missionary Society. 


United Free Church of Scotland 


The four stations of this Society are extensions of the large work with head- 
quarters at the famous Livingstonia Institution in Nyasaland. They are situated 
in Tanganyika, East Luangwa, Awemba and Serenje near Livingstone’s grave at 
Chitambo. They report 12 European workers, 5 stations, about 200 out-schools, 
350 Native teachers, an enrollment of 9,500 and an average attendance of 5,000. 
Advanced training for the Native teachers is provided at Livingstonia and other cen- 
tral stations in Nyasaland. A limited amount of training is arranged at the stations. 
The well-trained Scottish staff of this Mission, working according to the ideals and 
methods of their Nyasaland schools, are rendering an educational service of great 
value to the north-eastern section of the Protectorate. 


Primitive Methodist Mission 


The important work of this Mission, which began in 1893, is situated in the 
Kafue District immediately north of Livingstone. Their central station, at Kafue 
on the railway, has a teacher-training course with some practical instruction in 
farming and handicraft. The Institute has 66 pupils on the roli, but is understaffed 
and limited in equipment. The head of the station is energetic and resourceful. 
His work as secretary of the Northern Rhodesia Missionary Conference has been of 
great value in the development of cooperative relationship among the missionary 
societies of the Protectorate and in the stimulation of interest in Native education 
on the part of the Government. 

The Acting Inspector of Schools in Northern Rhodesia writes : 

The Native Training Institute at Kafue should develop into a valuable center of all-round 
education. In some six years here good houses for the principal and agricultural superintendent, 
with fine brick classrooms, quarters for the pupils, a carpenter’s workshop, sheds and outhouses have 
been built. The labor used has been mostly that of the pupils. Hygiene, elementary science, the 
theory of agriculture and stock-raising all have their place in the curriculum, along with practical 
work on the lands, in the poultry run and in the shop. The other four stations of this Society do 


good work. They do not fall into the common error of establishing out-schools far and wide for 
which they have no trained teachers and which they cannot properly supervise. 


The Society reports 5 stations, 11 European workers, 29 schools, 36 Native 
teachers, an enrollment of 1,500 and an average attendance of 1,100. Several books 
have been written in the vernacular. The Ila grammar by the Rev. E. W. Smith, 
well known for his valuable treatise on Native customs, is a standard work. The 
vernacular publications include translations of the Gospels and pamphlets on 
hygiene, soil and plant life. 


Universities Mission 


The five stations of this Mission are widely separated in each of the four 
provinces—namely, Batoka and Luangwa in the north-west and East Luangwa and 


NORTHERN RHODESIA 268 


Mweru-Luapula in the north-east. The emphasis has been more on religious than 
on educational work. The report indicates that there are 17 European workers, some 


being trained educationalists, 5 stations, 33 out-schools and 42 Native teachers, 
with an attendance of about 900. 


The Garanganze Mission 


This Mission, also known as the Christian Missions in Many Lands, is staffed by 
the Plymouth Brethren. Their stations are situated in the extreme north-west in 
Barotseland and in Mweru -Luapula of the north-east. Their work includes 7 stations, 
19 Europeans, 42 out-schools, 74 Native teachers and an attendance of 1,100. Many 


of the European workers are laymen. The medical services of one of their mis- 
sionaries is widely known. 


Seventh Day Adventist Mission 


This Mission reports 4 stations, 11 Europeans, 38 out-schools, 46 Native teachers 
and about 1,000 pupils. The four stations are widely separated, so that intercourse 
is practically impossible. Their school work provides manual training and practice 
in agriculture as well as some preparation for teaching. 


South Africa General Mission 


The four stations of this Society are in the north-western section of the Protec- 
lorate. They vepert 11 European workers, 7 out-schools, 8 Native teachers and an 
attendance of about 800. 


Smaller Protestant Missions 


There are four other Missions maintaining a few stations in the south-western 
section. These are the Wesleyans—2 European workers, 2 stations, 30 out-stations 
and about 500 pupils; Brethren in Christ—4 European workers, 2 stations, 8 out- 
schools, 16 Native teachers and 240 pupils ; Church of Christ—2 European workers, 
1 station, 1 out-school and 25 pupils; South African Baptists—8 Europeans, 1 station, 
8 out-schools and about 400 pupils. The school work of the Brethren in Christ is 
said to be practical and effective, especially in teaching homecrafts to Native girls. 


Roman Caruonic Socierirms 
Jesuit Fathers 


This Society reports 5 stations, 20 Europeans, 70 out-schools and an average 
attendance of 2,600. Their stations are in Luangwa and Batoka districts of the 
western section. The educational work of the Mission, especially at Chikuni, is prac- 
tical both for boys and girls. The girls’ school recently established by the Sisters of 
Our Lady provides instruction in sewing, basketry, spinning, weaving and home- 
crafts. The lay Brothers are teaching the Natives pisé de terre building and directing 
them in the sinking of wells to supply water for the villages. The Fathers of this 
organization take part in cooperative educational activities with other Missions. 


264 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The White Fathers 

This Society reports 12 stations, 32 Europeans, 570 out-schools, 218 Native 
teachers. Their stations are distributed throughout the four districts in the north- 
east. Some educational work and valuable agricultural training on the mission 
stations is reported. The emphasis is, however, much more on religious education 
than education. The White Fathers take no part in missionary cooperation. 


GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 


The government schools include the Barotse National School, its 7 out-schools 
and a small day school in the Native quarters of Livingstone town. The National 
School at Kanyongo near Mongu was founded in 1906. It is maintained from the 
Barotse Fund consisting of a proportion of the taxation paid to the Paramount Chief, 
definitely assigned for education by agreement with the Government. The total 
cost of the schools is approximately £4,000. The staff consists of three Europeans 
and Native helpers. The enrollment includes nearly 200 boarding boys. The curri- 
culum provides instruction in the three R’s, geography, hygiene, singing, agriculture, 
manual training in carpentry, building, tailoring and typewriting. The seven out- 
schools, with an average attendance of over 300, are situated from 35 to 90 miles from 
Kanyongo, and are supervised by an officer of the Barotse school or are visited by 
the Native Commissioner of the district as can be arranged. 


lI. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


Northern Rhodesia, the greatest undeveloped area of British possessions in 
Africa, awaits statesmanship to establish conditions that will transform the Pro- 
tectorate from a mere reservoir of cheap Native labor to a well-organized Colony 
with a Native population increasing normally, and resources of soil and mines 
contributing substantially to the welfare of Africa and Africans. That the new 
Government is conscious of the great possibilities is indicated in the following 
statement by a political officer intimately acquainted with the country through 
many years of service: ‘‘ Now that the financial solvency of the Protectorate is 
guaranteed by the Imperial Treasury that has already advanced £2,500,000, as a 
loan to build railways in Kenya and Uganda for the stimulation of cotton production, 
surely a powerful appeal can be made for a loan in the interest of Native educational 
development so directly related to the prosperity of both the Natives and the 
Protectorate. There is no reason to doubt that Northern Rhodesia can pay its way 
and supply other parts of Africa with food and commodities of great value.” 

The new Government is confronted by several problems of vital importance. 
Those requiring immediate attention are first, the establishment of communications 
by roads and railways within the Colony and satisfactory connections with other 
colonies and the ocean; second, the development of Native communities so that 
the exceedingly sparse population may multiply under reasonable conditions of 


NORTHERN RHODESIA 265 


health and community life. The use of the physical resources is inextricably involved 
in the contentment and prosperity of the Native population. Full credit must be 
given to the European influences that have been exerted for many years under 
great difficulties. Tribal wars have been eliminated, security of person and property 
has been established, sanitation and hygiene have decreased the ravages of disease, 
a railway has been built from north to south and, above all, many missions have 
devoted money and staff for the improvement of the Native people. 

The expenditure of effort and money on Native education will be largely nullified 
until Government has adopted successful policies relating to land tenure, taxation, 
market facilities and transportation. It has been suggested that ‘‘ the government 
appoint a Commission composed of officials, missionaries and settlers to consider 
Native policy. If there are Natives of sufficient ability and influence they should 
be appointed as an Assessor Committee. The subjects to be considered by such a 
Commission would be :—1. The division of the land for lease or purchase into areas 
designated for (a) Natives, (b) Europeans, (c) neutral. The neutral areas should be 
kept in reserve to await the development of the country. 2. Methods of communi- 
cation so that a market may be found for the products of Native agriculture and 
village crafts. 8. The acceptance of tax paid in grain or other commodity, which 
the Natives can produce at home, until money is more available. 4. The encourage- 
ment of education stressing character development, health, agriculture and village 
industry.” 

The following recommendations are offered for the consideration of those who 
are responsible for Native education. It is believed that they have the support of 
the new Government as well as the Conference of Missionary Societies representing 
both Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions, whose wise deliberations have 
contributed so largely to the sound development of the Native people and the 
country : 


1. The active interest of the new Government in education has already been 
manifested in a plan to appoint a Director of Native Education whose work shall 
be to coordinate and unify the educational activities of the numerous Missions. 


2. It is believed that an Advisory Committee on Native Education is to be 
appointed with representatives of Government, missionaries and settlers. Provision 
should be made as soon as possible for the representation of Native opinion. The 
smaller mission societies will probably present their case through the larger missions 
with similar ideas of education. 


8. Grants-in-aid to missions should be regarded as an investment in colonial 
development that will soon be reflected in better health, increased productivity and 
a more contented people. In view of the very limited available funds and the 
numerous needs of the missions distributed throughout the great Protectorate, it is 
suggested that the order of expenditure should be first, aid to central mission schools, 
selected for their geographical and denominational importance; second, aid for 
the maintenance of European missionaries to supervise the educational work of 


266 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


their Mission stations and out-schools ; third, aid to employ Native visiting teachers 
of satisfactory qualifications to encourage and improve village schools. The increasing 
prosperity of the Protectorate will doubtless make possible grants for other important 
purposes to enable mission systems of schools to become more effective. 


4, It is urged that every mission system shall select one of its mission stations 
as the center for training teachers and general supervision. The smaller societies 
and those with widely scattered stations will probably have to depend upon the 
central stations of other missions for the training of their teachers. The requisites 
of a successful central station are geographical proximity to the other stations, 
similarity or identity of the vernacular used as the medium of instruction, adequate 
European staff and equipment, and opportunity for practice in teaching. Reference 
to the paragraphs presenting the geographical distribution of missions in Northern 
Rhodesia reveals the absence of schools as well as training centers in the Western 
Provinces as compared with the Eastern. In view of the similarity of language in 
Nyasaland and some of the eastern districts, it may be well to depend upon Nyasaland 
for Native teachers in Eastern Rhodesia until their training centers are well established. 
This dependence is of course excluded in areas with a different vernacular. School 
organization is described at length in the chapter on Educational Administration. 


5. It is generally agreed that the unsupervised condition of the out-schools is 
exceedingly wasteful. In some instances even the station schools are so inadequately 
staffed as to defeat any attempt at effective management. The recommendation 
of the General Missionary Conference that visiting teachers should be employed is 
vital to the success of Native education. It is hoped that this provision will be 
made as soon as possible so that the large number of little schools may realize their 
possibilities in improvement of health, agriculture, industry and character develop- 
ment. The supervisory methods now being adopted in many African C olonies are 
described in the chapter on Educational Administration. 


6. The need of sound objectives in education required in Northern Rhodesia is 
strikingly described in the following quotation from the report of the London Mis- 
sionary Society Deputation that recently visited the Protectorate : ‘We teach 
them reading, writing, arithmetic, most of which they have forgotten within three 
years of leaving school. In our normal and higher schools we turn out poor teachers, 
fair store boys and indifferent clerks. What has all this to do with the life of the 
people? The education that forgets that this people is an agricultural people misses 
the mark badly.” The Northern Rhodesia Missionary Conference supports the 
exhortation to a better adaptation of education to the needs of the people in resolu- 
tions that are practically identical with the Objectives and Adaptations dis- 
cussed fully in the chapter on that subject in this Report. 


7. Looking to the future the Missionary Conference passed the following 
important resolution in 1924 : 


Seeing that the success of all Primary Schools depends on efficient Native teachers, the Conference 
thinks that it is of great importance that the necessary High Schools for training such teachers 


NORTHERN RHODESIA 267 


be opened with as little delay as possible. We would suggest one High School about the center of 
N.W. Rhodesia, one about the center of N.E. Rhodesia, and one about the center of the Railway 
Strip. These High Schools would undertake work only above Standard 4 and they would provide 
instruction in higher education, in agriculture, in manual arts, in pedagogy, in rural and political 
economics, in training demonstration agents in agriculture, health and sanitation, home economics, 
ete. 


It is certain that Government and missions must in the course of time provide 
for the advanced education of those who will complete the courses now offered. 
The suggestion has been made that the Colonies of the Sub-Continent, including 
Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, may combine to found an insti- 
tution after the type of Fort Hare in the Union of South Africa. 


CHAPTER XII 
BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 


ATIVE education in Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland is intimately 
| . connected in type and standards with that in the Union of South Africa. 
Unfortunately the improvements in the educational system of the Union seem not 
to have influenced these Native areas to any considerable extent. The geographical 
position of these British Protectorates, and their economic dependence upon the 
Union, point inevitably to the necessity of a close correlation of school methods and 
standards with those now being rapidly developed in all the South African provinces. 
This correlation is a part of other relationships that are forcing themselves upon the 
Governments concerned. The Natives of Basutoland, in the very heart of the Union, 
cannot escape the conflicting influences of interracial relationships nor the rapid 
progress of the vigorous civilization all about them. The sparse population widely 
scattered over the sands of Bechuanaland will naturally seek the advantages of the 
more favored peoples to the south. The small population of Swaziland cannot remain 
uninfluenced by the forward movements among both Native and European people 
across its borders. The degree of self-determination which circumstances have made 
possible for these three groups will be maintained and wisely used only in proportion 
to the ability of the people to make effective use of their resources and keep abreast 
of the economic and social conditions of other peoples with whom they must 
cooperate. 

The wide diversity of geographical and tribal conditions in the three Protectorates 
requires the intelligent adoption of the principles and methods of educational adapta- 
tion. ‘The schools must teach the people to live in accordance with laws of hygiene 
and sanitation, to till the soil and care for domestic animals, to maintain the decencies 
of the home, to play healthfully, to build up their morals and their morale, and to 
cooperate both among themselves and with Europeans and Natives in neighboring 
provinces. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Basutoland, with a population of about 500,000 and an area of about 12,000 
square miles within the south temperate zone, is entirely surrounded by the Union 
Provinces of Natal, Cape of Good Hope and the Orange Free State. Bechuanaland, 
with a vast area of 275.000 square miles, over half of which is desert and the rest only 
suitable for drought-resisting crops, is very largely within the tropics. It has a 
population of 150,000 Natives, only about one to the square mile of the grazing areas. 
Swaziland has an area of 6,678 square miles, approximating to that of Wales, and a 
Native population of about 110,000. It lies between the Transvaal and the Portu- 
euese province of Lourengo Marques. The western portion of the Territory averages 

268 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 269 


about 5,000 feet in height and is well watered and covered with grass. The central 
portion consists of rolling downs of fertile soil, whilst the lowlands, some 600 feet 
above sea level, are of great fertility, though malarious and somewhat deficient in 
rainfall. In addition to the Native population, Basutoland has 1,600 Europeans, 
about 1,000 colored inhabitants and 200 Indians ; Bechuanaland has 1,750 Europeans, 
about 1,000 colored people and 60 Indians ; Swaziland has 2,200 Europeans and 460 
colored. The estimated revenue for Basutoland was about £250,000 and the expen- 
diture £252,800, of which £37,600 was for education, including the maintenance of 
European schools. The estimated revenue of Bechuanaland was £96,400 and the 
expenditure £92,400, of which less than £3,000 was spent for Native education. The 
revenue of Swaziland in 1922-3 was £89,440 and the expenditure £89,674, of which 
£5,954 was for education, including the maintenance of 14 European schools. It 
would appear that the only unity amid the diversity of country and people is that of the 
control of the British Colonial Office. 


(a) BasuTOLAND 


The Basuto people have had a number of capable Native rulers who have been 
successful both in warfare and in peace-making with the Dutch and the English. 
One of the early conflicts was in 1852, when Chief Moshesh was attacked on account 
of cattle theft by his people. This conflict was followed by satisfactory peace. In 











inh, zambet! 





Sree Na aed sac {if eo! 
SEA Noa R 
‘ af 
! “me. 
{ \ Bulawayo 
i 4.Ngam fl 
' 
i one 






x4 = BECHUANALAN/D ~"\ 
o 
2 ’ Serowe 
AFRIiICc'A | Pee: 
f 


English Miles 
109 200 300 





400 500 












CAPE TOWN bY.» 


K2 


270 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


1858 there was trouble with the Boers. Peaceful relations were established, but minor 
conflicts continued from time to time until 1866, when the Chief assigned some of his 
property to the Orange Free State and acknowledged himself a subject of that State. 
In 1868 the members of the tribe were recognized as British subjects, and the country 
was anvexed to what was then known as Cape Colony in 1871. Later, the Colonial 
Government proposed the complete disarmament of the Basuto people. This led 
to a general rebellion of the Natives, known as the “ gun war,” which necessi- 
tated arbitration by the High Commissioner. After extended negotiations, a liberal 
constitution was offered to the Basuto chiefs. In 1884, practically all the chiefs 
agreed to comply with the conditions offered by the Imperial Government, and 
the administration of the country was taken over. 

Reports indicate that the population is increasing so rapidly as to threaten the 
overcrowding of the land. As much of the country is handicapped by severe droughts 
and by invasions of locusts, a large proportion of the able-bodied young men seek 
work in the gold mines of the Transvaal. In 1920, 58,000 passes were issued to 
Basuto laborers leaving the country. The efforts of the more progressive Natives 
to adopt European methods of farming are said to be discouraged by some of 
the chiefs, especially when these methods require the fencing of fields and thus 
become an infringement on the communal system. The unusually high prices ob- 
tained for wool during and since the war have caused the Natives to adopt sheep- 
raising and goat-keeping to the neglect of agriculture. In the ten years between 
1911 and 1921 the number of sheep had risen from 1,364,000 to 1,854,000. Wool is 
the largest export, the value of the output for 1922 being £377,000. This excessive 
interest in sheep absorbs land needed for cultivation. Further, the sheep are depas- 
turing the hills and mountains, thus causing erosion of the fertile soil and permanently 
limiting the agricultural possibilities of the country. The Government Agricultural 
Officer, addressing the Basutoland National Council, gave the following significant 
testimony : 

There has been no improvement in the agriculture of the territory during the past thirteen 
years. It has seemed to be going backward. Instead of plowing deeply, as in the old days, 
the Natives nowadays will only use pony plows, which merely scratch the surface of the ground. 
The Natives leave the plowing to children. I have visited the Transkei and studied the system 
of farm demonstrators and seen the Native agricultural societies which exist there and in the Cape. 


The Basutoland Government has decided to employ two farm demonstrators who have been trained 
in the Ciskei and to send further youths to be trained. 


An influential political officer, commenting on this situation, adds : 


It is characteristic of the suspicion with which tribal Natives regard innovations that it had to 
be explained to the Council that all the products of the fields worked by the demonstrators went 
back to the owner of the land. Not a single mealie cob went to the Government. There is need 
for fifty times the number of farm demonstrators if Basutoland is to be checked in its wasteful 
and inefficient farming, but the authorities are right in making a small beginning. 


The country is divided into seven Administrative Districts, each of which is 
divided into wards under hereditary chiefs allied to the Moshesh family. Many of the 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 271 


chiefs are said to be somewhat backward, with the result that an increasing number 
of the younger Natives are forming an independent party to effect much needed reforms. 
Reports indicate that the extent of independent government by chiefs has retarded 
the development of the country and the people. The influence of missionaries, and 
especially of the Paris Mission, has been notable, as shown by the census of 1921, 
which reported about 136,000 Christians. 

The eastern section of Basutoland is mountainous, with the Drakensburg Range 
as the boundary. Some of the peaks of these impressive mountains attain heights 
of 10,000 and 12,000 feet. The western section is of lower altitude, with numerous 
areas of cultivable land. As the country is in the temperate zone, the climate is 
agreeable and favorable to the cultivation of a variety of European and American 
crops. 

European influences were introduced into the country by the Paris Evangelical 
Mission over 80 years ago. The British Colonial Government was established in 1884. 
The seat of Government is at Maseru, where the British Resident Commissioner 
lives. Legislative authority is vested in the High Commissioner for South Africa. 
There is a Basutoland Council of 100 Native members, 95 of whom are nominated by 
the chiefs and five by the Government. This Council deals chiefly with domestic 
affairs and passes judgment on important cases between Natives, who have the right 
to appeal to the Magistrates’ Court. The functions of the Council are advisory 
rather than executive. The total estimated revenue for 1924 was £250,000, of which 
the chief sources were Native taxes, £135,000; customs and excise, £68,600; wool 
export duty, £14,000. The estimated expenditure for the same year amounted to 
£252,800, of which the chief items were £83,780 for educational, medical and agri- 
cultural activities ; £39,000 for police ; £38,740 for public works, including post and 
telegraphs, and £37,555 for administration and justice. The proportion spent for 
educational, medical and agricultural purposes compares favorably with similar 
expenditures in other British areas. The amount for police is, however, slightly 
larger than that for education. They have responsible duties in preventing the 
smuggling of liquor into the Protectorate. 


(b) BECHUANALAND 


The British Protectorate was proclaimed over the Bechuanaland Territories as 
a result of an expedition sent in 1885 to pacify Southern Bechuanaland, where 
fighting was taking place between the Bechuana and the Boers. In 1895, the southern 
portion, known as British Bechuanaland, was annexed to Cape Colony. The estab- 
lishment of the Protectorate is said to be largely the result of the influence of the 
early missionaries, who urged the British Government to establish peace among the 
people. The late Chief Khama was famous for his wisdom and ability as a ruler. 
He was a Christian who applied his convictions in the management of his people. 
He was widely known for his enactment of laws against the importation of spirits 
and for the prevention of brewing Native beer. He visited England in 1895 to 
protest against the transfer of the Protectorate to the Chartered Company. Owing 


272 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


to the disruptions attending the Jameson Raid, he was not successful in this appeal. 
Most of the land is vested in the High Commissioner for South Africa. 

The Protectorate is administered by a Resident Commissioner, under the direction 
of the High Commissioner for South Africa. The Territory is divided into two 
Districts, under Assistant Commissioners. The Districts are sub-divided into areas 
under the control of magistrates. The internal administration of Native commu- 
nities is under six chiefs, each of whom works with a European magistrate. In 1920, 
a European Advisory Council and a Native Advisory Council were established, to 
advise the Resident Commissioner in matters affecting European and Native affairs 
respectively. 

The estimated revenue for 1923-4 was £96,375, the chief sources being, hut tax, 
£35,000 ; customs and excise, £21,000 ; income tax, £12,000 ; posts, £10,425 ; export 
duty on cattle, £6,500. The expenditures for 1923-4 amounted to £92,437, the chief 
items being £17,800 for veterinary service, medical and education ; £23,800 for 
administration and justice ; £26,600 for police, and £10,200 for public works, posts 
and telegraphs. The amount spent on police seems exceedingly high in comparison 
with other government needs of the country. The sum expended for medical service 
and education is relatively low, and the £2,500 spent on education is the least of all 
expenditures. The few available facts concerning the sparse Native population and 
the extensive areas of low fertility indicate the difficult. problems confronting the 
officers of the Protectorate in their efforts to develop the people and the country. 
It is obvious that their efforts will require the cooperation of neighboring Govern- 
ments and the active help of the British Colonial Office. 


(c) SWAZILAND 


The beauty and grandeur of its scenery have won for Swaziland the title of “* the 
Switzerland of South Africa.” The climate is sub-tropical and inclined to violent 
contrasts. The country is, on the whole, well-watered and the rainfall plentiful 
compared with that of neighboring regions. Maize is the staple crop—tobacco, 
millet, groundnuts, beans and sweet potatoes being also grown by the Natives, though 
in insufficient quantities for local consumption. Attempts are being made to introduce 
cotton-growing, for which conditions appear to be favorable. The Natives breed 
sheep and goats in considerable numbers, but cattle-raising is mainly in European 
hands. During the winter months, about 300,000 sheep from the Transvaal pass 
annually into Swaziland for grazing purposes. Gold mining is carried on on a small] 
scale, and the country 1s said to be rich in mineral resources, though not as yet fully 
prospected. There is no railway, and communications remain in a primitive state. 

The Swazis are a stoutly-built people of Bantu origin, pleasing in appearance and 
yarying considerably in color. They have been established in the country for about 
two centuries, having driven out the previous Bushmen inhabitants. The kraal of 
the Paramount Chiefs (formerly Kings) of Swaziland is at Zombode. The present 
Paramount Chief is a young man, until recently a pupil at Lovedale Institute. His 
grandmother, the old queen, had a long regency during his minority and that of his 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 273 


father. She was a woman of unusual force of character and well-disposed towards 
the British Government, though her influence has at times been used on the side of 
reaction in social matters. 

During the last half-century, Swaziland has been feeling to the full the impact 
of many diverse elements of European civilization, desirable and undesirable. 
Until the eighties of last century, it remained an independent Native kingdom, 
almost untouched by European immigration. About that time, however, Boer 
farmers, followed by Scottish colonists, entered the country, obtaining concessions 
from the King, who found it highly profitable to grant to the incoming stream of 
Europeans, in return for a consideration, concessions of every imaginable type, from 
mining rights to rights of taxation, or monopolies in particular forms of trade. 
President Kruger obtained a foothold in the country for the South African Republic 
by buying up some of the concessions from the original concessionnaires. To such a 
pass, however, did matters ultimately come that in 1895 the Queen Regent sought an 
escape from her troubles by petitioning the British Government to annex her country. 
The request was refused, but in the same year Swaziland was taken over by the 
Transvaal, only to pass into British control after the Boer War. It was then made a 
Crown Colony, under the administration of a Resident Commissioner stationed at 
Mbabane. A special Commissioner was appointed to inquire into the situation as 
to the concessionnaires and their rights. Some of the more extravagant concessions 
were found illegal, and the land concessionnaires were persuaded, in return for security 
of freehold tenure, to give up one-third of their holdings for the use of the Swazi 
people. The majority of the European population to-day are farmers, mainly 
engaged in cattle-raising. The Natives live unmolested on their own lands, which are 
held communally by the tribes. The chiefs administer justice according to Native 
custom, a final right of appeal to the Resident Commissioner being reserved. Mis- 
sionary enterprise has been active in Swaziland during the last fifty years, no fewer 
than eighteen different bodies being represented in this little country no bigger than 
Wales. A triennial Swaziland Missionary Conference is held at Mbabane. 

The chief items of revenue in 1922-8 were Native tax, £41,464; customs, £11,049 ; 
sales of Crown lands, £10,421; dog tax, £3,059. The chief items of expenditure in 
the same year were, police, £17,857; public works, £9,260; East Coast fever 
veterinary, £10,874; medical, £4,907; education, £5,954; justice, £5,374. The 
expenditure for education, medical and veterinary purposes constitutes about 24 per 
cent. of the total: that for education alone is between 4 and 5 per cent. of the 
total. These proportions compare favorably with those in other colonies, but it 
must not be forgotten that the figure for education includes the cost of maintaining 
14 European schools. The amount spent on police, too, is by far the largest of all 
expenditures, and is more than three times that spent on education. 


II. EDUCATION 


The education of the Native youth in Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, 
three areas widely separated from each other but closely connected with different 


274 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Provinces of the Union of South Africa, gives rise to many administrative difficulties. 
The combined population of the three areas is less than that of even the smaller 
British Colonies. The organization of separate administrative systems is thus both 
expensive and difficult. Inasmuch as the occupational possibilities of the Native 
youth are intimately related to the economic and tribal condition of neighboring 
areas, there is need for a correlation of educational provisions with those offered in 
these countries. The absorption of the boys in herding cattle creates a difficulty 
as to school attendance. 


(a) BasSUTOLAND 


The number of children of school age in Basutoland is about 100,000, of whom 
some 40,000, or two-fifths of the total, are reported as attending some kind of school. 
The bulk of this educational work is done by the Paris Evangelical Mission and 
Roman Catholic and Anglican missionary organizations. The African Methodist 
Episcopal Church carries on work in Basutoland, the Primitive Methodist Missionary 
Society, the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society have recently started small 
missions there, and the Dutch Reformed Church is about to begin work in the 
country. 


Government Policy and Organization 


When Government first took up the task of organizing the educational system of 
Basutoland, it found three considerable missionary agencies already in possession of 
the field. hus, instead of inaugurating a separate system of government schools, 
it adopted a policy of subsidizing and supervising the work of those bodies. A 
coherent educational system exists for the whole country. 

There is an Education Department under a Director of Education, with one 
European and two Native School Inspectors. The work of each Mission is divided 
into districts, each District Missionary being responsible to his Central Mission 
Authority for the working of his schools, which must be run in accordance with 
government regulations. All returns and correspondence are sent by the District 
Missionary to his Central Mission Authority for transmission to the Education 
Department. A Board of Advice meets annually, under the chairmanship of the 
Secretary of the Government. The Director of Education is vice-chairman, and 
the Board also includes three representatives of the Paris Evangelical Mission (one 
being a Native), one representative of the Roman Catholics and one of the Anglicans, 
with one Native representative of the Paramount Chief. All questions of educational 
policy are brought before this Board and its assent is necessary to the establishment 
of new schools. 

Government grants are given to the three missionary organizations in proportion 
to the number of pupils being educated by each—all attendances, whether in primary 
training or industrial schools, being reckoned alike for this purpose. The present 
rate of grant is 26s. per unit of average attendance. As a first charge on the total 
amount received by each Mission, a fixed sum is set aside for the maintenance of 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 275 


training and industrial schools, the bulk of the remaining sum being allotted to the 
primary schools in proportion to the average attendance in each. Primary schools 
are divided into three classes : 

Third Class Schools, with an average attendance of 20-45. Instruction is given in the vernacular 
and no particular qualification is required of the teachers. 

Second Class Schools, with an average attendance of 45-70. Instruction is given in the vernacular 
and English up to Standard I1I, and the teacher in charge must hold the First Year Pupil Teachers’ 
Certificate of the Cape Education Department, or be recognized by the Basutoland Department 
as capable of managing the school. 

First Class Schools, with an average attendance of over 70. Instruction is given in the vernacular 
and English up to Standard VI, and the teacher in charge must hold the Third Class Teachers’ 
Certificate of the Cape Education Department or be approved by the Basutoland Department. 


The Native teachers employed on the staffs of training and technical schools are 
recruited from among the best primary teachers. All the training schools in Basuto- 
land prepare pupils for the Native Teachers’ Examinations of the Cape Education 
Department. It will be seen that the general application of the government system 
leads to a considerable degree of unification in curriculum and organization among 
the schools of the three different missions. 


Government Schools 


In accordance with the policy outlined above, Government maintains only one 
school. This is an industrial training school, situated at Maseru, the seat of the 
administration. It has some 60 pupils, under two European instructors. 


Paris Evangelical Mission 


This society owes its predominant influence in Basutoland to its long connection 
with the country no less than to the soundness and thoroughness of its work. It 
can now report a Native membership of almost 70,000 Christians (including pupils 
in school) and about 350 schools of various grades. Women and girls constitute 
a majority both in church membership and in school attendance. A striking feature 
of the work of this Mission is the printing-press, with its accompanying book-store. 
This developmént was initiated as far back as 1841, the press being established in its 
present quarters at Morija in 1874, since when it has been entirely self-supporting 
and has poured forth a constant stream of religious and educational literature in the 
Sesuto language. A monthly newspaper was inaugurated in 1864, and now enjoys 
a circulation of over 2,000 copies among the Basuto. New machinery was installed 
during 1923, and the activities of the press in the dissemination of knowledge and 
culture continue to increase. Among its latest publications is a treatise on Hygiene 
and Morale. 

The Boys’ Secondary and Training School at Morija has about 120 pupils, under 
Kuropean direction. Primarily designed for the training of teachers, it has instituted 
a preparatory department with a view to ensuring the attainment by the pupils of 


276 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


requisite standards, particularly in the knowledge of English. A notable innovation 
within the last few months has been the use of the cinema to present to the pupils 
phases of life with which they are unfamiliar. 

The Boys’ Industrial School at Leloaleng has about 40 pupils and is under European 
direction. The curriculum includes training in masonry, carpentry, iron work, 
saddlery and also shoemaking, in which particularly good progress is reported. Anew 
mill, to be paid for out of school funds, has recently been installed. In 1928-4 a 
favorable financial balance was reported. 

The Girls’ Industrial School at Thabana- Morena reports 87 pupils, under a European 
headmistress. The new kindergarten training department is proving successful. 
Four girls have already completed this course and have entered the service of the 
Mission as kindergarten teachers. 

A Girls’? Household and Industrial School is under course of construction at Cana. 
Substantial stone buildings are being erected. 

The Bible School, which does not appear to be recognized by Government as a 
secondary or training school, carries on the training of catechists and evangelists. 
In 1923, it contained 20 young men, among whom were two who had completed their 
teachers’ training course at Morija. In becoming catechists, these boys will give 
up the comparatively high salaries open to them as secular teachers. 

The Theological and Pastoral School trains Native candidates for the ministry. 
In 1923, only four pupils were reported, and a temporary closing of the school was 
considered expedient. 


Roman Catholic Schools 


There are reported to be 112 primary schools under Roman Catholic control. 
The teachers in most of these schools are Natives, though a few of the larger schools 
are under the direction of European sisters. There is a Boys’ Training, Industrial 
and Agricultural School with 120 pupils, and a Girls’ Industrial School with 259 
pupils. In both cases these numbers include day scholars. 


Anglican Schools 


Basutoland at present forms part of the Diocese of Bloemfontein. Much of the 
educational work among the Natives is carried on by the Society of the Sacred Mission, 
whose headquarters are at Modderpoort. 60 Anglican primary schools are reported 
in Basutoland. 

The Boys’ Training and Industrial School at Masite has two departments for 
teacher-training and industrial work respectively. During 1923 the number of pupils 
attending the industrial classes rose from 10 to 80, but it is feared that this depart- 
ment may have to be closed owing to heavy expenses and shortage of funds. 

St. Catherine’s Girls’ Industrial School at Maseru has at present about 20 pupils. 
Competition to enter is said to be so keen that many requests for admission have to 
be refused. The standard of work done is reported to be very high. 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 277 


(6) BECHUANALAND 


Bechuanaland, with some 30,000 children of school age, has an enrollment of 
about 5,000, or one-sixth of the total, in 77 schools. Four missionary agencies— 
the London Missionary Society, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Anglican Church 
and the Lutheran Church—control between them all the schools in the Protectorate. 
Of these, the London Missionary Society has by far the greater number. There are 
no government schools, and no Director of Education. Responsibility for the super- 
vision of the scattered schools in this vast area rests with the Director of Education 
for Basutoland, who is only able to spend a few weeks in Bechuanaland each year. 

A particularly interesting feature of the educational system of Bechuanaland 
is the strong influence exerted upon its development, for good or ill, by the Natives 
themselves, and particularly by the Native chiefs. Beyond a small grant to the 
London Missionary Society from general revenue, government grants to Native 
schools are met largely out of the Native Fund—a portion of the hut tax being 
definitely earmarked for education. Over and above this, a few chiefs levy additional 
taxes upon their people for educational purposes, such funds being expended locally. 
Almost all the schools are administered by School Committees, generally under the 
presidency of the magistrate of the district, who pays periodical visits of inspection 
to the schools. The membership of the Committee also includes, as a rule, the local 
missionary, the chief or his representative, and a tribal representative. The quality 
of the work done tends to depend largely upon the character and capabilities of the 
chiefs. A reactionary chief, who fears the influence of education upon his people, 
may seriously hamper the school work of a district. Even the more progressively 
minded chiefs are sometimes among the strongest supporters of a purely literary 
education, having, perhaps, received such an education themselves, and mistrusting 
attempts to introduce agricultural and technical education as possible efforts to 
relegate the Natives to a position of permanent inferiority, That all School Com- 
mittees are not subjected to such influences may, however, be inferred from the 
following notes, made by a prominent officer of Government, on the minutes of a 
meeting of the Bangwaketse School Committee : 

Among the other items we find references to an evening school for herd boys, arrangements for 
holidays (one month in the winter and two months in the summer), provision for a reference library 
for teachers at Kanye. Then follows this important ruling: ‘‘ That in future more consideration 
be given to training in handicraft, agriculture, stock-breeding and practical things affecting the 
everyday life of the tribe ; that the secretary make inquiries with a view to securing the services of 


a qualified man to take up such work ; that the tribe be asked meanwhile to give the school a suitable 
piece of ground on which experiments in agriculture could be carried on. 


None of the schools in Bechuanaland attain to anything above an elementary 
standard at present. There is no teacher-training institution in the country ; con- 
sequently many of the Native teachers are untrained. Those who are trained, 
however, have usually taken courses at Tiger Kloof, the London Missionary Society’s 
Training Institution over the border in Cape Colony. A small grant from the Native 
Fund is made annually to this institution. The low scale of salaries paid in Bechuana- 


278 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


land, as compared with the provinces of the Union, tends inevitably towards a 
dearth of trained teachers for the Protectorate. 

A standardized curriculum, compiled by Government in 1919, though not com- 
pulsory, is recommended to the attention of School Committees. Only four standards 
are included, the subjects of instruction being restricted almost entirely to the three 
R’s, English and religious instruction, with a little geography and history. In 
Bechuanaland, as in Basutoland, women and girls predominate both in church 
membership and in school attendance. Women are said to enjoy a higher status 
‘yn Bechuanaland than in most parts of Africa, but no special provision appears to 
be made for their education, apart from the coeducational primary schools. 


L.M.S. Schools at Serowe 


One of the most flourishing Native schools in the Protectorate is that under the 
auspices of the London Missionary Society at Serowe, the capital of the Bamangwato, 
whose late king was the famous Khama. The attendance is large, and the new school 
building erected by Khama is said to be the finest in Bechuanaland. The building 
expenses were met almost entirely by the tribe, over and above their contribution 
to the general Native Fund. A second Native school in Serowe is under the special 
care of the chief, Sekgome (the son of Khama), who sent all the able-bodied men out 
to work with instructions to return with £5 each for the new school. 


Dutch Reformed Church, Machudt 


Some members of the Commission were able to visit the Native school at Machudi, 
another fine example of tribal effort. This school is carried on under the auspices 
of the Dutch Reformed Church, whose missionaries have been established at Machudi 
for many years. The building was erected in 1921 by Isang, Regent of the Bakgatla, 
with the assistance of the tribe. It stands ona high rock in the center of the Native 
town, and is a fine building with commodious classrooms. At the time of the 
Commission’s visit, the European headmaster was on furlough and the school was 
not in session. Several hundred children, however, assembled at the school and 
gave an excellent display of drill and singing, under the direction of their Native 
teachers. The staff gave the impression of energy and keenness. 


(c) SWAZILAND 


The number of children of school age in Swaziland is about 22,000, and the school 
attendance, not including nearly 300 European children, appears to amount to not 
more than 8,000, less than one-seventh of the total number. This compares un- 
favorably with Basutoland, with a two-fifths attendance, and even with Bechuanaland, 
where the attendance amounts to one-sixth. The Government maintains European 
schools at 14 centers, and a Native school with an attendance of 100 at Zombode. 
There are over 100 mission schools in the Territory, but the attendance at some is 
merely nominal and the work is intermittent, schools being often temporarily closed. 

In a report presented to the Government Secretary of Swaziland in September, 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 279 


1924, prepared by Archdeacon Watts, acting as Commissioner, it is stated that the 
schools reveal not only the energy and self-sacrifice of the missionaries, but also the 
keen determination of the Natives to acquire education. It is of peculiar significance 
that the Natives, unlike those of other colonies, are asking with no uncertain voice 
for manual training. The report says : 

The idea that all educated Natives must be preachers or teachers has passed to a considerable 
extent out of their minds. I was frequently asked where manual training could be obtained. 
Schools which can offer such training are now much sought after. Ifa Native is to become a civilized 
person he must know some form of work sufficiently well paid to enable him to maintain himself 
in a civilized manner. Undoubtedly, in his present stages of development the training of the hand 
is what is needed. A Native probably requires literary education up to Standard IV, in order to 
gain regular habits and discipline. He must be able to write a letter, to add up money and to 
understand weights and measures. He must have his intelligence and ambitions stimulated by 
some general knowledge such as is given in this standard and should then receive agricultural or 
manual training, 

In view of the deep-seated fear of witchcraft and its paralyzing effect on the Native 
mind, simple instruction in natural science should be combined with the object 
lessons given in the schools. 

There is special opening among the new settlers in Swaziland for Native boys 
who can speak English and who know how to plant cotton and tobacco. They 
command good pay. It is suggested that boys who have passed Standard IV 
in mission schools should be given the necessary training at the Government 
Experimental Farm. An excellent syllabus for Native schools in Swaziland, with 
full information as to text-books and instructions for the teaching of gardening, 
sowing and other manual work, has been prepared by the Headmistress of the 
Rethany School (S.A.G.M.). It has the warm approval of all the missionaries. 

{n the Commissioner’s report the schools visited are placed in four classes. In the 
first class are the few really efficient schools, working under proper supervision, in 
suitable buildings and with proper equipment. The second are those in which the 
teaching is of an elementary character, but in which (being in the main under the 
direct control of the European) habits of order and discipline prevail, and considerable 
moral influence is exercised. The third class schools are those in which good work 
is being done, though their tone and power is not marked. The fourth class contains 
much the largest number; the schools in it are small and poor in quality. 


Umbuluxi Girls’ School (South Africa General M ission) 


This school is for the training of Native women teachers. Two of the pupils 
recently obtained the Native Teachers’ First Year Certificate. This marks a great 
step forward in the educational progress of the country. There are 100 pupils at 
the school. In view of the desirability of training teachers in the country, instead of 
sending for a supply to Natal or elsewhere, this admirably conducted school is fuil of 
promise for the future. The same mission has also a school at Bethany which 
provides a sound education. The manual training given there, however, needs 
development. 


280 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Edhlozana (Church of the Province of South Africa) 

Although not actually in Swaziland, this school has 30 Swazi children on its roll 
of over 80 and receives a grant from the Government. The Commissioner writes : 

It seems to me a model of what such a Native school should be. The training of the hand given 
in the lower school by clay modelling and other means culminates in the well-equipped workshop 
where boys are taught skilled metal work, carpentry and furniture making by capable instructors 
with proper tools. So often the manual work in Native schools is a mere farce. The boys who 
leave this school really know some trade by which they can support themselves. 

The development of this institution into a boarding school where Native technical 
instructors for Swaziland could be trained has been urged. The Church of the 
Province of South Africa has many other centers of educational work in Swaziland. 


Mahamba (Wesleyan Methodist Church) 

The school at Mahamba, with African teachers only, is reported to stand in a class 
of its own in southern Swaziland. It supplies a strong center for good and has stood 
the test of years. It has 62 pupils, of whom 35 are sub-standard. Former pupils 
of the school are teaching well in other centers. Industrial work under competent 
instructors is being developed. 


Other Educational Agencies 

The Franson Memorial Bible School, built in 1924, and equipped on a liberal scale, 
is a first-class school, designed for the training of Native preachers. The Florence 
School for Colored Boys and Girls gives a careful and thorough training for life. 
Several Wesleyan and Methodist bodies carry on educational work ; Scandinavia 
is represented by the Alliance Mission which has several schools, and two Norwegian 
missions and the Seventh Day Adventists have small schools. 

The Roman Catholic Church has active educational work in Swaziland of which 
information is unfortunately not available. 


SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The diverse educational needs of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland are 
uniform in their requirement of adaptation of education to the conditions of the 
people and in the necessity for correlation with the educational systems of the South 
African Provinces. The greater part of the education has hitherto been supplied 
by mission societies. Government and Native chiefs have been sympathetic and 
helpful both through financial grants and some friendly supervision. 

Basutoland has been fortunate both in the extent and quality of mission and 
government provision for education. The immediate need is probably that of a closer 
integration of the various grades of schools so that the influence of the higher schools 
may radiate with more certainty to the smaller schools and thus to the masses of the 
people. This is further discussed in the recommendation on the school system. 
There is also need for better adaptation of the school work to the condition of the 
people. It must be noted that the present facilities provide for only a third of the 
children of school age. 

Bechuanaland is less fortunate in the extent and adaptation of education for the 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 281 


Native children. Of the 30,000 children of school age there are less than 5,000 in all 
types of schools. The London Missionary Society, the Dutch Reformed Church, and 
two other missionary organizations are rendering valuable educational service. Chief 
Khama and some of his associates and successors have been noted for their interest 
in the education of their people. The active and intelligent operation of these chiefs 
has been valuable. It is obvious, however, that the schools of Bechuanaland are in 
real need of organization, so that the people may be better prepared to deal with 
the difficult problems of their thinly populated country. 

Swaziland, with its small population and its limited territory, has only a school 
attendance of some 3,000 out of a total of 22,000 children of school age. Though 
this reflects seriously upon the present situation, it has still graver bearing on the 
future, if the Territory is to play its part in the forward movements in South Africa. 

The peculiar geographical position of these three Native areas, in relation to the 
dominant white population all about them, is bound to influence every phase of their 
development. While much can be done educationally without any regard for these 
conditions, sound colonial policy requires a careful study of future possibilities so 
that such problems as land tenure, market facilities, railway and road communications, 
hygiene, sanitation and education may be solved for the best interest of Native people 
and the general welfare of South Africa. The achievements of Native education are 
intimately dependent on the success and wisdom with which these vital problems will 
be handled. 

The recommendations herewith presented are necessarily general, requiring re- 
adjustment to suit the varied conditions in the three areas. Where conditions are 
known, suggestions are offered for special application to local conditions. 

1. The three areas require an active and well organized system of supervision, 
including the four provisions described at length in the chapter on Educational Ad- 
ministration. These elements are, first, a Director of Education with adequate staff 
representing him in the three Protectorates ; second, systems of supervision main- 
tained by each mission ; third, a staff of Native visiting teachers ; and fourth, Advisory 
Committees on Native Education. The Basutoland Director of Education has some 
responsibility both for Bechuanaland and for Swaziland. It appears, however, that 
the inadequacy of his staff and his lack of authority make effective supervision im- 
possible. A genuine recognition of the importance of supervision by mission societies 
would go far toward a solution of this important problem. The system of Native 
visiting teachers working from local centers seems to be definitely applicable in these 
provinces. These visiting teachers should represent both Government and missions 
and their training should include a real knowledge of hygiene, simple elements of 
agriculture and handicraft, the decencies of the home, sound recreation and character 
development. The appointment of an Advisory Committee on Native Education 
for each Protectorate is essential to sound administration. These committees should 
represent Government, missions, Natives and settlers. Their methods and functions 
are illustrated by those of the provinces of the Union of South Africa. 

2. Much depends on the wise organization of the school systems so that the Native 


282 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


pupils may pass naturally from the lower to the higher grades. There is much to 
commend in the relationship of Government to missions, especially in Basutoland, 
where authority and responsibility are clearly defined. The more essential elements 
of the school system required are as follows : 

(a) Schools for the training of the masses, usually known as out-schools. In sections 
with many small schools it is suggested that some of them shall be selected for 
development, so that they may become centers of supervision for other schools 
immediately about them. This arrangement is described in connection with the 
Blantyre Mission in Nyasaland. Visiting teachers would probably make the central 
village schools their headquarters. It is desirable, where possible, to give smaller 
mission stations under European management general charge of local supervision. 
In many instances these smaller mission stations may be substituted for the central 
village schools. The work of government extension officers, such as farm demon- 
strators, veterinarians and sanitarians, should be closely correlated with the out- 
school system. 

(b) Schools for the training of teachers and Native leaders. These include the 
central mission stations, larger government schools and institutions in neighboring 
provinces to which pupils go for special training. It is important that every mission 
shall designate one of its own schools as the center for special training or arrange with 
the Government or another mission to supply such facilities. The central institu- 
tions of missions and government in Basutoland largely supply this need for that 
Protectorate. In Bechuanaland there are one or two schools that promise to develop 
the facilities and methods required to serve as the local training centers for the area. 
Tiger Kloof Institution, just across the boundary in Cape Colony, is well organized 
and effectively staffed as a training center both in teaching and in handicraft. From 
the beginning this institution has offered opportunities for education to the youth of 
Bechuanaland. Swaziland may also develop institutions which can provide the more 
advanced training necessary for the Native teachers and leaders. 

The improvement of the school systems in these three Native areas will doubtless 
result in the education of an increasing number of Native students who are prepared 
for education beyond that provided by the local schools. For such students it seems 
clear that Fort Hare Native College is well adapted to provide the effective type of 
training which they will need. It is believed that Native leadership in Basutoland 
has already contributed to the financial support of Fort Hare so that their youth may 
take advantage of the higher educational facilities provided by that excellent 
institution. 

(c) Extension activities in education. It is urged that Government and missions 
shall combine to organize a system of farm demonstrators, home demonstrators and 
sanitary workers who will exert influences in their respective fields for the improve- 
ment of the Native people. These activities, together with other phases of educa- 
tional organization, are described at length in the chapter on Administration. 

3. School reports from Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland all indicate 
the need of increased adaptation of school work to the needs of the Native com- 


BASUTOLAND, BECHUANALAND AND SWAZILAND 283 


munities. In this respect, as in practically all the others, Basutoland has been rather 
fortunate. Missions and Government have endeavored to organize and maintain edu- 
cational activities for the improvement of the Native people in some phases of industry 
and somewhat in agriculture. However, only a beginning of the necessary adjust- 
ment has been realized. The rapidly changing conditions in all of these areas require 
serious consideration so that the youth may be prepared to work successfully and to 
supply the much needed leadership in the direction of community life. As in every 
part of Africa, the most immediate need is that of training in farming, including both 
cultivation of the soil and care of domestic animals. Each area presents difficult 
agricultural problems. The very existence of the Natives in some sections depends 
upon their successful use of agricultural resources. Inasmuch as these Protectorates 
are almost entirely in the hands of the Native people, it is necessary to provide 
training that influences every phase of life. They must be able to repair and build 
their houses, to supply implements for agriculture and other forms of industry, to 
construct roads, to become mechanics and to encourage any form of home or village 
handicraft required in the country. The education of women should also be adjusted 
to the special responsibilities placed upon them by the customs and the conditions 
of the country. 

The school enrollment shows an unusually large proportion of Native girls. There 
is therefore a real opportunity for the improvement of the home life of the people. 
The Education Codes seem to indicate the neglect of instruction in hygiene and sani- 
tation. Character training through religion and the daily routine of the schools is 
fundamental to all education. It is urged that Government and missionary codes of 
education, school methods and facilities, as well as the minds of the staff, shall all be 
directed to the training of the Native people in these essential elements of community 
life. Fortunately the striking improvements in the educational methods and ideals 
of the South African provinces will serve as examples for the needed changes. These 
educational objectives and adaptations are presented at length in the chapter on that 
subject. 

4. Government statistics of expenditures already presented show the compara- 
tively small proportion devoted to Native education. The expenditures in Basutoland 
are comparable with those in the better colonies. There is, however, a very great need 
for a more liberal support of Native education in each of the Protectorates. Native 
chiefs and Native councils have in some instances given substantial evidence of their 
real interest in education. It is to be hoped that Government and tribal organizations 
may greatly increase their financial appropriations for every type of Native school. 

5. A fundamental element in the educational policies of these three Native areas 
is the provision for an intelligent and effective correlation of educational standards 
and methods with those in the neighboring provinces of the Union of South Africa. 
Geographical proximity, as well as the inter-relations in commerce, agriculture and 
tribal exchanges, demands a training for the Native youth that will enable them to 
enter naturally and effectively into association with all the Native people of South 
Africa. 


CHAPTER XIII 
RUANDA AND URUNDI* 


HE unique interest of Ruanda and Urundi lies first in the fact that the Territories 

were assigned to Belgium by a Mandate from the League of Nations, and secondly 
in the physical beauty and fertility of the country and the variety and density of its 
unusually capable Native population. The mandatory responsibilities for the remark- 
able potentialities of these Native kingdoms are both rea] and extensive. The heavy 
responsibilities of Belgium for the vast areas and great populations of the Belgian 
Congo have thus been increased by the addition of the densely populated areas of 
Ruanda and Urundi. Inthe Minutes of the Third Session of the Permanent Mandates 
Commission of the League reference is made to the Belgian report on Ruanda and 
Urundi as corresponding with the spirit of the Covenant and proving that a civilizing 
mission was being carried out. The future development of these territories and their 
people is involved in the common interest of the League of Nations in them, as well 
as in the extensive Territory of Tanganyika assigned to the British. Differentiations 
of Belgian and British Government policies with regard to their respective mandated 
areas will doubtless result in interesting comparisons. Educational comparisons will 
not be the least important of those that will naturally be made by the League of 
Nations and by those concerned in the development of Africa and Africans. It seems 
clear that the Governments should encourage the correlation of their educational 
policies so that the countries and the peoples may be mutually helpful. In this the 
League of Nations has a responsibility to act as an integrating influence. 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


THE The territories of Ruanda and Urundi fall between latitudes 1 and 
COUNTRY 5 south and are bounded on the north by Uganda; on the west by 
the Belgian Congo; on the south and east by Tanganyika Terri- 
tory, part of the northern and eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika falling within the 
Kingdom of Urundi. The total area is 21,235 square miles, and the population is 
estimated as about three and a half millions. Ona rough computation it may be said 
that, while the area is about twice that of Belgium and half that of Nyasaland, the 
population approaches half that of Belgium and twice that of Nyasaland. The contrast 
with the neighboring territory of Tanganyika is particularly striking. Whilst the area 
of Ruanda-Urundi is only about one-seventeenth that of its great neighbor, its 
population amounts to over three-quarters of the total for Tanganyika. 
A portion of Ruanda was included in the British Mandate on the partition of 
German East Africa, but, largely owing to the impracticability of the arrangement and 


* The Commission, as already stated in the Introducticn, were unable personally to visit 
Ruinda and Urundi, 


284 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 285 


to the objections of the Natives to the partition of their kingdom, was ceded to Belgium 
in 1923, with the consent of the League of Nations. 

The division between the two Native kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi is historical 
rather than geographical or ethnographical in origin. Geographically, Ruanda- 
Urundi may be considered as a unit, consisting in the main of an undulating plateau, 
sloping from a height of some 8,000 feet on the West to some 4,500 feet on the East, 
scored by deep, narrow valleys and distinctly mountainous in the West, particularly 
in Ruanda, where some of the highest volcanoes in the world are to be found. The 
watershed of the Nile and Congo lies in this region, some four-fifths of which may be 
included in the Nile basin. The river Nyavarongo, in Ruanda, is considered by some 
authorities to be one of the sources of the Nile, and some of the Urundi streams lay 
claim to similar honors. The majority of the rivers flow in a north-easterly direction, 
the most important being the Kagera. Many of the river valleys, particularly in the 
Kast, have great papyrus swamps and numerous lakes. On the West the land slopes 
abruptly down to a level of some 2,500 feet in the valley of the Rusizi. This narrow 
belt of plain, continuing in places along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, is 
tropical in climate and vegetation, whereas the highland regions enjoy a temperate 
climate, frosts being by no means unknown at night. The seasons are somewhat 
irregular and the total rainfall varies considerably from year to year. Most crops may 
be harvested twice annually. Many varieties of temperate and tropical crops are 
grown, whilst the undulating highlands afford excellent grazing ground for cattle and 
smaller animals. 


THE No accurate return of the Native population is available, though several 
PEOPLE attempts to secure one have been made. The Natives tend to under 

estimate the number of women and children through fear of additiona\ 
taxation. There are three distinct Native races, probably the result of successive 
migrations. The oldest of the three is the Batwa, a pygmy race of negroid extraction 
and of primitive type, despised by the other Natives. Their numbers are comparatively 
small, 

The great majority of the people are Bahutu—a race of Bantu stock, industrious 
and fairly intelligent. They are good cultivators, men, women and the older children 
working together in the fields. They keep cattle in small numbers, and they have an 
almost exclusive proprietorship of the smaller animals and poultry. They show con- 
siderable skill in the rotation of crops, in irrigation and drainage, and in terrace culti- 
vation on the slopes of hills, though their implements are primitive, the plow being 
almost unknown. Hoes and beads frequently serve the purpose of currency in the 
Native markets. The Bahutu language, with variations of local dialect, is spoken 
by all races throughout the territories. 

The Batusi are a pastoral aristocracy superimposed upon a predominantly Bahutu 
society. Their numbers do not exceed some hundreds of thousands, but they have 
allocated to themselves all positions of importance in the Native scheme of govern- 
ment. They are of Nilotic origin—a tall people, of fine physique and good intelligence. 


286 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


They have considerable capacity for government. They are said to despise all manual 
labor except the care of cattle, which are held in great veneration. Large herds are 
common. All cattle are the property of the King, who sometimes appoints two chiefs 
for a district—one for the land and the Bahutu, the other for the cattle and the 
Batusi. Among the pastoral Batusi, wives are valued in terms of cattle ; among the 
agricultural Bahutu, they are valued in terms of hoes. Besides the three races named, 
Natives of Swahili origin or from the Belgian Congo are to be found in considerable 
numbers at the principal European centers. The Swahilis have introduced a certain 
Moslem influence into the towns and have instituted a few small Koran schools at 
Usumbura and one at Kigali. 

The cultivation of cassava, which grows best on the lower levels, is being encour- 
aged by the administration as a reserve incase offamine. The official report for 1923 
states that the amount of cassava flour exported in that year was more than a hundred 
times that of the figure for 1922. Palm-oil and castor-oil are also exported in 
moderate quantities. The cultivation of coffee, rice, maize and other important 
erops by the Natives is encouraged by Government, but is only in the experimental 
stage as yet. Great improvements will have to be effected in agricultural and stock- 
raising methods before a surplus can be realized after the wants of the vast population 
have been satisfied. The only important export dependent upon the Native cattle is 
that of hides. 

The organization of the Native kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi is clearly defined. 
Ruanda is an absolute monarchy, under the King or Sultan, who owns all the land and 
cattle. It is divided into fifty provinces, each under a chief appointed by him and 
liable to be recalled, though not without the consent of Government. The provinces 
are further divided into smaller districts under sub-chiefs, and again into smaller 
portions under headmen. The monarchy is not so absolute in Urundi and recalls 
certain features of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The King holds his own 
domain, where he is chief, but has only a suzerainty over the lands of his vassals. The 
monarchy has been weakened by internecine wars and, latterly, by the fact that the 
legitimate king is a minor. The country is at present administered by a Council of 
Regency consisting of ten prominent chieftains. In spite of the ethnographical and 
geographical unity of Ruanda and Urundi, there is no trace in history or legend of 
their ever having been united as one kingdom. Wars between the two have been 
common as far back as their history can be traced. 


EUROPEAN Livingstone and Stanley, passing along the shores of Lake Tanganyika 
INFLUENCES in 1871, were probably the first Europeans to set foot in Urundi. In 


1879, two White Fathers established a mission at Rumonge, but this 
Order did not finally establish itself in the country till 1884 owing to the hostility of 
the Natives. The Protectorate of German East Africa was established in 1885, but 
it was many years before the influence of the Germans penetrated far into the hinter- 
land. It was only in 1892 that Dr. O. Baumann, the German explorer, arrived in 
Urundi, tobe followed by other explorers and scientists, mostly of German nationality. 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 287 


Plans for railroad construction were afoot before the war, but were never carried into 
effect. fr 

The Territories are now under the control of the Belgian Colonial Office, the central 
administration being in the hands of a Royal Commissioner residing at Usumbura. 
Under him are two Residents, with headquarters at Kigali (Ruanda) and Kitega 
(Urundi) respectively. The administration of the two Residencies is kept quite 
separate. Each Resident delegates certain officers to represent him in the territories 
of important chiefs. The system of territorial organization is being kept as flexible 
as possible. Delegates at the more important posts are sometimes assisted by a 
deputy. Native secretaries are now being trained to assist in the work of administra- 
tion, 37 being already in government service. The Belgian authorities aim at working 
through existing Native organizations, and are accordingly stimulating them to a 
gradual process of improvement and development. Thus the King of Ruanda has 
lost the power of life and death over his subjects, and may no longer dismiss chiefs or 
sub-chiefs without the consent of the Kuropean administration. The Bahutu, too, 
are being protected from excessive requisitions on the part of the Batusi and the chiefs. 
Corvées and dues have been specified and limited, and the property of the Bahutu 
has been definitely secured to them. The administration of justice is left as far as 
possible in the hands of the Native chiefs. Any case of flagrant injustice which comes 
to European notice is reported to the King or Council of Regency, who is expected to 
cause the unjust chief to make amends to the injured parties. 

The following figures were submitted by the Government to the Permanent Man- 
dates Commission of the League of Nations under the heading of ‘‘ Expenditures 
made in 1923 in the Direct Interest of the Natives ” : 


T, Edueation— Fr. 
(1) General education HTS bk ORR E EE OLE cee oP eae 93,325.21 
GrantsstoxMmissiOnsy ace lrrl hee laren Sr a, ee de 25,000.00 


(2) Special education— 


(a@)aSchool for medical assistants: ..) . 904) wy ce + ane 62,412.00 
(OEASTICUICUTAL SCHOO! aay Seecimicn meet net Pane, ae eee 29,689.00 

(c) "Technical education 4 F.ae 8 AA SS PE, 24,500.00 

(da); Veterinary educationjit?. Filet) sds .oca aepelf' 23,000.00 

II, Rebatements of tax to Native Chiefs . . . .. . . 152,000.00 
LD ieeMedicaliascistances.0mk 290 een crhicee os ere tae) BPs) bo dew Genes 122,000.00 
A Vite ELCHINALY IADOTRLOEcaiaee 6 tele A aie eco Mth. c lear 105,206.83 
V. Provisions against cattle plagu eee ee eet eee LO). LT O00 
Wits Means/ol comnmunicavions.d sat oat a neeet tk hoki. te Fete 106,838.26 
VAISiUvira-Bukayusroadereereite sik hetoies abpniges atk Pe 312,264.27 
VIII. Building of schools and hospitals Aa ee chet Deere ee 147,573.33 


1,350,319.90 


The yield of Nativetaxation for the year 1923 was estimated to be 1,500,000 francs. 
The majority of the indigenous Natives are taxed at the rate of 3.50 francs per head—- 
about the same rate as under German administration. It appears, therefore, that 


288 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the amount spent in the direct interest of the Natives is somewhat less than the 
results of the Native taxation. 

In English currency the 257,000 francs, according to the present Belgian exchange, 
amount to nearly £3,000, or 14,000 dollars in American currency. This is obviously 
an exceedingly small amount for the education of the children of about 3} million 
Native people. Adding the items mentioned in the above table as for Native interests 
to the sum spent directly on Native education, the total amounts to 1,350,000 
frances or about £15,000; even this amount represents only a good beginning of 
financial interest in the welfare of the people. Unfortunately complete statistics are 
not available of the expenditures for general administration, police services and 
public works in road building and other physical improvements necessary to the 
extension of civilization. 

Reference to the sections on European influences in British Colonies shows the 
importance of many of the general expenditures to Native welfare. The personnel 
employed by the Belgian Government in Ruanda and Urundi consisted in 1928 of 
twenty-nine officers in the territorial administration, seven in justice and police ; 
seven in the secretariats, finance and posts ; four in medical and veterinary work ; 
thirteen in public works ; and four in education. The services of these 64 government 
officers deserve consideration as contributions to the development of the people and 
the country; only the four in education and the four in medical and veterinary 
services were included in the table of expenditures in the interest of the Natives. 
With full credit for the genuine effort of the Belgian Government to carry out the 
responsibilities of their mandate for this important part of Africa, it is apparent that 
the beginning is almost negligible in comparison with the great needs and the greater 
possibilities. Roads are as yet very few and very temporary in structure. There 
are no railways or other means of communication worthy of consideration. 

Special attention to medical problems is also imperative in view of the danger 
of frequent epidemics of infectious diseases such as sleeping-sickness, smallpox, 
cerebro-spinal meningitis and influenza in a thickly populated land of primitive life. 
Yaws and syphilis, here as in so many parts of Africa, are prevalent. Government 
maintains three hospitals, at Usumbura, Kitega and Kigali respectively, anda number 
of local dispensaries. There are three fully-qualified European doctors in govern- 
ment service. In 1923, a total of 2,064 in-patients in the hospitals was reported, 
together with 247,100 out-patient attendances at government hospitals and dis- 
pensaries and 70,509 vaccinations. Missions also render considerable medical service. 
The White Fathers report a large number of out-patient attendances and over 2,000 
vaccinations. In 1923, the Belgian Protestant Mission reported a total of 18,000 
cases at their two dispensaries. A third dispensary has recently been established. 
The Church Missionary Society has also begun medical work. Prospective missionarics 
have begun to take courses at the School of Tropical Medicine in Brussels. Energetic 
measures are being taken by Government to put a stop to cattle-plague, the chicfs 
being encouraged to inoculate their herds. 

At the close of 1923, the total European population in the Territories numbered 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 289 


277 (116 in Ruanda and 161 in Urundi), representing a total increase of 41 on the 
preceding year. As to nationality, 163 were Belgians, 46 French (all missionaries 
except one trader), 17 Dutch, 20 Germans (all Roman Catholic missionaries), 8 Greeks, 
8 Swiss, 5 Italians. The number of missionaries, including the wives of Protestant 
missionaries, totalled 114, while government officials and servants amounted to 70. 
Asiatics and other colored people were reported as numbering 247, the majority being 
Arabs and Indians. 

Experiments in growing different crops and in raising different kinds of stock 
are being made at most of the government posts and many of the mission stations. 
The general economic policy of the Government is summed up as follows in the Report 
on the Belgian Administration of Ruanda and Urundi during 1921 : 

The program of a partnership without rivalry between the Native, a small independent cul- 
tivator working his own land for his own advantage, and the European, commercial and industrial, 
without whose intervention the raw product, being too poor, could not reach the outer market, leaves 
to each race its own sphere of activity ; their interests do not conflict ; each has a distinct rdéle. 
The Natives will be able to fulfil theirs without abandoning their customs, without revolutionizing 
their institutions, without deviating from the normal course of their development, within the bounds 
of their traditional environment. 


In 1923, Government reported 145 economic undertakings, 118 being in Urundi. 
The majority were small trading concerns in Arab or Indian hands. The export 
trade is mainly in the hands of a few European firms, the Asiatics serving rather as 
intermediaries between Europeans and Natives. Industrial enterprise is still in its 
infancy, and is almost entirely in the hands of Government and missions. 


II. EDUCATION 


The extensive educational responsibility of the Belgian Government in Ruanda 
and Urundi is indicated by the fact that one-fifth of the 3,500,000 Native people, 
or 700,000, are children of school age. A liberal estimate of the children at present 
in any kind of school is 26,000; it is obvious, therefore, that only a very small 
beginning has been made in educational provisions for this unusually populous 
African area. The White Fathers began their valuable work in 1879. German 
Protestant missions maintained several stations prior to the Great War. The Belgian 
Protestants were authorized to undertake the responsibility for the German missions, 
and they have already established some of their missionaries in the country. The 
Government recognizes the value of mission activities and gives to them every 
encouragement. Financial grants, however, were restricted until 1924 to the Belgian 
Protestant organization, as the only “ national ’’ mission—the White Fathers being 
a predominantly French Order. Now grants are to be extended to other missions. | 
This should mean a substantial increase in the total subsidy to missions, reported as 
25,000 francs, or nearly £300, in 1923. The government policy aims at assuring a 
minimum grant to each mission school, over and above which the scale is proportioned 
to the number of ex-pupils entering the government higher schools or the service of 


290 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


administration. There is no indication that the Government carries on any adequate 
supervision of the mission schools. 


Government Education 


The plan of the Government is to concentrate on the education of the chicfs and 
Batusi notables, training, from among their ranks, those who will act, in all the 
most important phases of Native lite, as civilizing agents and intermediaries between 
the European administration and the Native people. Thus, besides instructing 
chieftains in their general duties, the government scheme provides in some degree - 
for the training of Native assistants in administrative and secretarial functions, in 
teaching, in medicine, in agriculture and in stock-raising. The most important and 
regrettable omission is that, up to the present, nothing has been done for the education 
of the Batusi women, though the Government appears to recognize the desirability 
of some such provision in the future. 


Batusi School, Nyanza 


This school was founded in 1919, and is now under the direction of a certificated 
European master with three Native assistants. Situated in the Native capital of 
Ruanda, the headquarters of the court, it is confined to Batusi boys, two of the King’s 
sons being among the pupils. This school aims at training future chiefs, teachers 
for elementary schools and clerks for the administration. The course occupies three 
years, instruction being given first in Kinyaruanda, then in Ki-swahili. The curriculum 
includes reading, writing, arithmetic, Ki-swahili, geography, hygiene, physical culture 
and conferences on the duties of chiefs. Pupils destined for teaching or administrative 
work take a fourth year, studying French, typing and the elementary principles of 
administration. In 1923 there were 167 pupils. Several old pupils of this school 
have already succeeded their fathers as chiefs, while others have entered the adminis- 
trative service. Among the latter is the Native secretary to the Resident of Ruanda. 


School for Sons of Chiefs, Clerks and Teachers, at Muramvya 


This school was founded in 1923, in the capital of the youthful King of Urundi. 
He is himself one of the pupils. The staffing and curriculum is similar to that of the 
school at Nyanza, and the development will no doubt run on parallel lines. There 
are already 140 pupils. 


School for Native Medical Assistants, Kitega 


With an organization like that of the medical schools in the Belgian Congo, this 
school was opened early in 1922, near the existing hospital and medical laboratory 
at Kitega. Its aim is to train Natives to diagnose and treat the common diseases 
which are most injurious to the Native population. Theseassistants will work at the 
headquarters of various chiefs, under European supervision. The course occupies 
three years, instruction being given in Ki-swahili. Some general education, including 
French, is given in the first year. Courses are given in both theoretical and practical 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 291 


medicine, including hygiene, the treatment of wounds, vaccination, anatomy, in- 
jections, and general diagnosis and treatment of current diseases. Pupils receive 
free board and lodging and a salary of 12 francs a month. The history of this school 
illustrates the difficulty of inaugurating such work amongst a primitive population. 
On the opening of the school, 25 candidates presented themselves, but only 11 could 
pass the entrance test. Of these, 5 proved unfit to proceed with the course after 
the first few months, and were retained as hospital orderlies pending their further 
development. At the end of 1923 there were still only 7 pupils. 

The Veterinary Laboratory at Kisenyi and the Agricultural Experimental Station 
at Kitega are similarly intended to serve as centers for the training of Native assist- 
ants in their respective spheres of activity. Their work is as yet, however, only in 
embryo. 

Government also maintains 13 schools of elementary standard, with a total of 
625 pupils, in the neighborhood of some of the government posts, in order to train 
clerks and office helpers for the administration. Little is taught in the schools beyond 
reading, writing and arithmetic. Most of the pupils are the sons of chiefs and 
other Batusi. 


The White Fathers 


The White Fathers entered Urundi in 1879 and Ruanda in 1900. Government 
reports recognize them as pioneers of civilization, especially in Urundi, and pay tribute 
to the excellency of their medical work, primary education, agricultural experiments 
and industrial training. In the two Vicariates, 68 missionaries and 23 sisters were 
reported in 1923, with 379 Native catechists and 59,125 Christians and catechumens. 
The number of elementary schools was given as 267, with 268 teachers and 23,955 
pupils. These figures show a very substantial increase over those for the previous 
year. It is probable that many of the “schools” are merely catechetical centers, 
as in the case of other mission fields. No separate figures are given for boys and girls. 
The White Fathers also maintain the only non-governmental schools classified under 
‘Higher Education’’ in the government reports, namely, the Little and Grand 
Seminaries at Kabgaye. 


‘ 


The Litile and Grand Seminaries, Kabgaye.—The aim of these institutions is the 
training of Natives for the Roman priesthood. Many fall short of this aim and 
become teachers or catechists; a few have entered the Government School for Medical 
Assistants. An enrollment of 123 pupils is reported at the Little Seminary and 80 
at the Grand Seminary. Of the comparatively small proportion who pass on to the 
Grand Seminary, not all enter the priesthood. The total course occupies twelve 
years, evenly divided between the two seminaries. The curriculum in the Little 
Seminary includes religious instruction, French, Latin, history, geography, elementary 
science, arithmetic and music. In the Grand Seminary, it is restricted almost entirely 
to theology and philosophy. The staff of the Little Seminary includes four European 
priests, while the Grand Seminary is entirely under the direction of two European 


292 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


priests. It is significant that the majority of the pupils in the seminaries are Bahutu, 
who show themselves quite capable of profiting by the education they receive. 

Since the foundation of the government schools, one or two mission schools on 
similar lines are reported to have been inaugurated, religious instruction being 
optional and the attendance confined to Batusi. Of these, the most important is the 
White Fathers’ School at Kigali, with 62 Batusi pupils. 


Belgian Protestant Missionary Society 


For some years prior to the war, Protestant missionary education in Ruanda and 
Urundi was entirely in the hands of two German organizations—the Bielefeld and the 
Neukirchen Missions, the former maintaining five stations in Ruanda, the latter an 
equal number in Urundi. In 1916, the German missionaries were compelled to leave 
the country, with the tragic result that their work suffered an interruption of some 
years. 

By the Treaty of Versailles, the Belgian Protestant Missionary Society formally 
undertook to replace the German organizations in the evangelization of Ruanda 
and Urundi. As yet, however, it has only been able to reopen three of the former 
stations of the Bielefeld Mission, Kirinda, Iremera, and Rubengera. It reports 
9 missionaries and 8 out-stations with village schools, containing about 1,000 pupils. 
The fine work of the Bielefeld Mission at Kirinda station in teaching pottery to the 
Natives has been recommenced by the Belgian missionaries, together with instruction 
in the cultivation of flax and the art of weaving. A woman missionary has invented 
a new industry—the weaving of carpets from banana fibres. A workshop at Kirinda 
employs 150 workmen. Government and the White Fathers are following this 
example at some of their stations. 


Seventh Day Adventists 


Belgian members of this society established themselves in Ruanda in 1918, 
ultimately settling at Gitwe. They have now two stations, with 5 missionaries, 
10 catechists, 315 Christians and catechumens, and 18 schools with 18 teachers and 
313 pupils. 


Church Missionary Society 


This society was able to gain a footing in the Kisaka country during the period of 
British control after the war. Sanction has now been obtained from the Belgian 
authorities for work in any part of the country. Three high schools of the Uganda 
type are maintained, at Kisoro, Kabale and Rukira respectively. The pupils are all 
Batusi or sons of chiefs, and number about 60 altogether. A girls’ school at Kabale 
was opened in 1923 and has about 20 pupils, including 5 Batusi. A hospital with 
125 beds has been built at Kigezi. There are in all 15 out-stations, mostly with 
rudimentary schools attached. 


PLATE XXXIII 








IN RUANDA (1) 
(a) Itinerating by Canoe ; (6) The Mufumbiro Mountains, 


PLatre XXXIV 





IN RUANDA (2) 
(a) Belgian Missionary Directing the Weaving of Carpets from Banana Fiber ; 
(b) On Medical Itineration ; (c) Group of the Tall Batusi., 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 293 


Ill. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The addition of 700,000 children of school age in Ruanda and Urundi to the 
2,200,009 children in Belgian Congo has placed a very heavy responsibility upon the 
Belgian Government. The great potentialities of these inland kingdoms, for which 
Belgium has been entrusted with mandatory authority, create a situation of inter- 
national interest. The world, and especially the allied nations, will have an increasing 
interest in all efforts to improve the Native people and to develop the country. The 
comparatively high density of population, the unusual capacities of the Native people, 
together with the beauty and wealth of the country, call for vigorous and extensive 
efforts for every type of education and for all the advantages of European achievement. 
The interior position of the country, its long distance from the Belgian Colonial 
Headquarters at the mouth of the Congo in West Africa, the undeveloped state of the 
country as regards roads and other necessities of civilization, all combine to hinder 
and delay the efforts of the Government to fulfil its obligations to the country and the 
Native people. 

The economic development of the country and the effective education of the people 
are inextricably involved in one another. The inland position of Ruanda-Urundi neces- 
sitates a degree of independent development that is unusual as compared with other 
colonial areas having better access to the sea or more closely identified with the general 
interests of the Government in control. While every effort should be made to give 
the country natural communications with the trade routes of the world either through 
Kast or West Africa, it is certain that the state of separation requires an especially 
effective type of education for the creation of Native leadership and for the training 
of the masses of the people. In this extensive responsibility, Belgium requires and 
deserves the aid of all who are interested in Africa and Africans. 

Facts already presented indicate the interest of the Government in education. 
A few government schools have been erected for the training of prospective chiefs, 
medical helpers and clerks. Missions are receiving a limited amount of financial aid 
and every encouragement to carry on their work. But in comparison with the 
700,000 children of school age the number in school can be regarded only as a favorable 
promise for the future. There is need for heroic effort on the part of Government 
and missions to unite their forces so that an effective system of schools may be organ- 
ized. The following recommendations are offered as suggestions for the consideration 
of those who are responsible for the education of these interesting and promising 
peoples : 


4. In view of the common interest of the League of Nations in Ruanda and Urundi 
entrusted to Belgium, and in Tanganyika entrusted to Great Britain, it seems desirable 
that the educational activities in the two areas shall be correlated both as regards 
school organization and the objectives of education. The general chapters of this 
Report describe at some length the organization and objectives recommended for 
the Colonies in East Africa. The chapter on Tanganyika presents the special adap- 
tations required in that important area. Itis hoped that the Belgian Government 

L 


294. EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


will be able to make possible such education of the Native people in Ruanda and 
Urundi as will enable them to realize the standards obtained in the neighboring 
colonies. 

2. The first requisite to success in the extension of education is the determination 
to increase the financial provisions for both mission and government schools. Such 
increase will, of course, involve thorough supervision by Government. Larger 
expenditures without sympathetic direction may easily result in serious waste of 
funds. For the encouragement of Government, always hard pressed for funds, it 
is emphatically urged that money spent on education related to the needs of the people 
will supplement, and in many instances replace, appropriations now being made for 
other departments of the Government. For example, the study of other Colonies 
has shown that funds spent for the police and military departments could have been 
more effectively expended for colonial peace and Native morale through schools 
molding the character of the people in the direction of thrift, industry and self- 
control. Lessons of health and hygiene may be better imparted to the masses of the 
people through Native teachers trained in those important subjects. Agricultural 
propaganda may be disseminated through the little out-schools, distributed among 
the masses. Thus educational expenditures may be regarded as supplementary 
to practically every department of Government. 

3. To justify large expenditures for education, the adoption of sound objectives 
for all school activities is required. The transfer of European school methods and 
training without adequate regard for Native needs may be of comparatively small 
value. In some Colonies such a transfer has resulted in the development of an 
artificial aristocracy with practically no interest in the masses of the people ; in 
others, the Native people have been taught to despise their own attainments and 
to seek mere imitation of foreign customs. However unconscious or well-intended 
such educational activities may have been, they cannot merit substantial financial 
support or encouragement. 

The educational objectives and adaptations recommended are based upon the 
community needs of the people. They are health and hygiene, agricultural and 
industrial skill, the decencies and necessities of home and family life, healthful recrea- 
tions and sound character. The realization of these simple, but vital, objectives 
should color every school activity, whether in the study of books or in the discipline 
and practices of the dormitory, field, shop and playground. For full realization of 
educational objectives the knowledge and inspiration of every type of education, 
whether physical and social science, history, literature or religion, will ultimately 
be required. 

4. The system of schools should provide for the training of Native leadership 
and for the education of the masses. There should be a gradation of instruction 
and training from the small out-school to the highest standards for which the Natives 
are prepared. The present arrangement for the education of the sons and appointees 
of Native chiefs is useful as a part of the system, but it may be futile and even harm- 
ful unless there is provision for the training of the masses of the people. To entrust 


RUANDA AND URUNDI 295 


~ 


the responsibility for the large number of out-schools to the missions without giving 
them financial aid and the encouragement of supervision is not defensible. Such a 
procedure in other Colonies has given a false sense of educational adequacy. One 
of the most notable impressions made upon the Educational Commissions both to 
West and East Africa has been that of the possibilities of the little out-schools when 


they are effectively planned and supervised. The gradation of schools recommended 
are as follows : 


A. Loeal, or out-schools, under a Native teacher, with as much training as the circumstances 
permit. 

B. Intermediate schools, with a Kuropean teacher in charge, exercising supervision over 
the smaller schools, 

C. Central schools under European supervision, with both European and Native teachers and 
usually with dormitories, It is urged that every mission society should have these three grades of 
schools in its system. In the case of societies unable to provide a central school it is suggested that 
they arrange for the advanced or special training of their pupils in the schools of neighboring 
societies. 

D. A central school or college for the whole colony should be provided as soon as possible by the 
joint agreement of Government and missions, so that pupils may have the advantage of advanced 
and effective education in such an institution as soon as they are prepared to profit by it. Special 
training as medical assistants, as agricultural supervisors, or as administrative assistants may be 
provided in the central schools or in special institutions, In view of the importance of the education 
of Native girls and women the school system should provide for the admission of girls to the lower 
grades of all schools. The more advanced training of Native women can be effectively given only 
in missionary schools where European women, whether the wives of missionaries or single women 
missionaries, or Roman Catholic sisters, may organize and supervise the special features of educa- 
tion required by women. 

E, Extension of education should be provided by traveling instructors trained to teach and 
encourage sound practice with regard to health, agriculiure, industry and the home. In this the 
government departments can give valuable assistance. 


5. A well-planned system of supervision is essential to all educational effort. 
Liberal financial appropriations and a full gradation of schools will fail without 
supervisory arrangements representing both government and mission authority and 
interest. The essentials of a supervisory system are as follows : 


(a) A Director of Education with a depariment equal in dignity to any other of the departments 
in the Government. In view of the responsibility of the Government under mandate for Ruanda 
and Urundi and the wide separation of these areas from the headquarters of the Belgian Congo, it 
seems advisable to maintain a special department for these inland kingdoms. 

(b) An Advisory Committee representing Government, missions and economic organizations 
to plan educational policies. If possible it is desirable to include a representative of Native 
organizations. 

(c) Government and mission inspectors to direct and encourage all types of schools. 

(d) Visiting Native teachers to cooperate with the Native teachers of the little out-schools and 
to help them to relate the influence of their schools to the community needs of the Native villages. 
This form of supervision is being rapidly adopted in many parts of Africa. The plan has had 


remarkable success in America in the dissemination of helpful influences among the masses of the 
people, 


CHAPTER XIV 
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 


HIS great Colony, second only in area to Portuguese Angola and Belgian Congo, 
al foment colonial and educational problems that seem almost insoluble. Students 
of colonial history in Africa, deeply impressed by the heroism of the Portuguese as 
the first explorers not only of coastal Africa but of some of the interior regions as 
well, view the present unfortunate condition of their Colony with deep regret. The 
geographical situation on the coast, with several excellent harbors, the extensive 
area of fertile soil, and the considerable number of Native people susceptible of 
development equal to the best in Africa, all indicate the great undeveloped potenti- 
alities of this important Colony. 

Geographically and, to some extent, politically, the country is divided into three 
areas, each of which presents difficulties of a seemingly unsurmountable character. 
The northern section lacks communications, both roads and railways. The middle 
section is involved in the policies of a commercial and industrial company. The 
southern section is drained of its labor by the attractive opportunities of gold mines 
in Johannesburg. 

All areas lack political and economic leadership to a most disappointing degree. 
Portuguese officials win the gratitude of all visitors by their courtesy and affability. 
Professions of interest in the Native people are abundant. There are frequent 
reminders of the early centuries when the Portuguese mariners and explorers endured 
the hardships of unknown climes and lands, and began the contacts with European 
civilizations which have since brought many benefits to Africa. With full apprecia- 
tion of courtesies and historical achievements, students of present-day conditions 
cannot, however, remain indifferent to the uniformity and universality with which 
complaints are made relating to almost every phase of life in almost every area 
visited. Concretely, the difficulty of the situation may be stated in the dilemma of 
the southern area, drained of its labor forces by Johannesburg for the sake of the 
money brought back by the Natives, and thereby deprived of the necessary labor 
to develop the resources of the country. 

Under such conditions planning for Native education would seem to be almost 
futile. With characteristic devotion to the Native people, and with the faith that 
has overcome all types of obstacles in the past, missionaries are working with remark- 
able self-sacrifice for the improvement of the Native people. In a few localities the 
Government gives some encouragement to these activities and maintains a very 
limited number of schools. A Portuguese student of the government action reflects 
the utter lack of policy in the following significant words : 

Educational legislation in the Province of Mozambique is disorganized, scrappy, self-contradic- 
) tory and full of gaps. So abundant are the laws, however, that one may say, with the French 


savant, that “ the land of forty thousand laws is the land of no law.’ Such a state of things would 
296 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 297 


be admirably suited to those who, to take a cynical view, might wish to profit by the confusion and 
the faults of the law in order to impose their own interpretations or dictate their own precepts at 
will ; it cannot conduce to the public welfare or to the dignity of the Government and of those who 
govern. Likewise the educational legislation is by no means in line with the best moral, social 
and economic interests of the Province, nor adapted to the principles of the sciences of education 
and of instruction. 


I, ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


Portuguese East Africa, situated on the south-east coast of Africa, has an area 
of 424,000 square miles* and a population of almost 3,500,000. This comparatively 
small population is sparsely distributed over the extensive area of almost four times 
that of Great Britain. With a coast line of 1,430 miles the country extends from 
12° to 25° south latitude. 

The territorial division of the country is a peculiar and confusing arrangement of 
political and geographical districts. The Mozambique Province, with an area of 
295,000 square miles, or three-fourths of the Colony, includes governmental districts 
that are distributed throughout the country. The districts of Lourengo Marques, 
Gaza and Inhambane, with a population of about 750,000, occupy the southernmost 
area of the country. Tete district, with about 400,000 people, is a western projection 
of the central area. Quelimane and Mozambique districts, with a population of 
almost a million and a half, are in the northern area. These districts, widely 
separated from one another, are administered by governors who have considerable 
independence of action. 

In addition to the large province of Mozambique there are two commercial 
companies to which the Portuguese Government has assigned charters for the control 
and exploitation of the country and the people. The first of these is the Mozambique 
Company, with an area of 60,000 square miles and a population of almost 300,000 
people occupying the central part of the Colony. The second is the Nyasa Company, 
occupying the extreme northern section bordering on Lake Nyasa, with an area of 
73,300 square miles and a population of about 500,000 people. There is also the 
Zambezia Company with economic control of about 80,000 square miles, but operating 
without a charter. 

This perplexing arrangement of governmental control of the country is under 
the direction of a Governor-General who resides at Lourenco Marques. 


THE The Native population is sparsely but evenly distributed over the great 
PEOPLE area of the Colony, with about 3,800,000 in the Mozambique Province 

under the direct rule of the Government, and about 800,000 under the two 
chartered commercial companies. The northern tribes are similar to those of N yasa- 
land and the southern parts of Tanganyika Territory. Along the Zambezi river the 
Native people have been subjected to European influences for a longer period than 


* Authorities differ widely as to the area of Portuguese East Africa. Pending final evidence to 
the contrary, one of the larger esiimates given is adopted here. 


298 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 






EnetisH Mites 
gb 0 50. 100 150 









































14 i4 
Baier Ne \gu.cHiuTA 
oh! g Mozambique 
om : Die Maine MOZA 4 a 
{ ay BS E Jzombal SSHiRWA BIG UE 
ee ZamPez, {Benga an | : 
16 5 
Tete ; 
-™~ 
Salisbury ! 
ig { 18 
SOUTHER\N . | 
[RHODE SI A( | 
1120 
ae 
as 
I 
caste Tihag eae a fi inte 
124|- > Lee nhambane# 
“ 
Fa 
Ihe 
Se 
26 o 





42) wEHUITT 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 299 


elsewhere, with the result that tribal organization has been weakened and hereditary 
Native chiefs have often been replaced by half-castes. A higher degree of skill in 
arts, crafts and building is said to have been attained in this region. This applies 
especially to work in gold and silver. The Natives in the southern area have acquired 
a very favorable rating for their work in the Transvaal mines. Evidence of the 
extensive Zulu raids appears both in the language and the fine physique of the 
Natives in the southern sections. 


THE The country falls naturally into three divisions—the coastal plain, the 
couNTRY lowland plateau and the highlands of the west. The width of the 

coastal plain varies considerably in different parts. In the south, it com- 
prises almost the whole width of the Colony. Northward, it is much narrower, except 
where it extends up the river valleys, notably that of the Zambezi. The plain attains 
in places a height of 500 to 600 feet, but most of it lies much lower. It varies in character 
between marsh, sandy waste and fertile land, though the latter predominates. Most 
tropical crops may be grown. The lowlands average about 800 to 2,000 feet in height. 
They form a gently undulating plateau, broken by occasional isolated hills or moun- 
tains. The highlands of the West have a mean elevation of about 8,500 feet. They 
are only to be found in the more northerly parts of the Portuguese territory. In 
places they are rimmed on the west by a rampart of mountains, as along the western 
frontier of the Mozambique Company’s territory, and again to the east of the great 
rift occupied by the river Shiré and Lake Nyasa. 

Practically the whole of Portuguese East Africa, when left in its natural state, 
is forest land, the nature of the forest varying with the altitude. Many valuable 
timbers are to be found, particularly in the strictly tropical forests of the plain. The 
country is said to be rich in mineral wealth, though large tracts are still unprospected. 
Gold-bearing reefs are reported on the upper Zambezi, within the Tete district, and 
also in the Mozambique Company’s territory. The goldfield in the Company’s 
territory extends over the border into Rhodesia, where it is known as the Umtali 
Goldfield. Copper is mined in considerable quantities in various parts of the territory 
of the Mozambique Company. Extensive coal deposits have also been found in the 
Tete region. The principal exports of the Colony are sugar, rubber, wax, ivory and 
various ores. 

Portuguese East Africa is well watered by numerous rivers, some of which have 
their origin far in the interior of the continent. They are, however, with the exception 
of the Zambezi, which is navigable for stern-wheelers as far as Tete, practically useless 
except for Native craft and, in some cases, small launches. Inland navigation is 
possible on some rivers which are not accessible from the sea, and this may be of 
service in the development of the commerce of the Colony. In the highland districts 
there are considerable reserves of water power. The climate and temperature, as 
in so many parts of Africa, vary with the altitude. Everywhere there are two seasons 
—a rainy season, lasting from November to March or April, and a dry season. The 
mean annual temperature of the coastal zone is from 77° to 80° F., while in the high- 


300 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


lands it is about 68° or 69° F. The climate is not, as a whole, very healthy for 
Europeans, particularly in the coastal regions. 

Dr. Shantz summarizes the agricultural possibilities of the country in the follow- 
ing significant statement : 


No country in East Africa offers greater potentialities for the production of warm climate crops. 
The cotton production may easily reach 25,000,000 acres without limiting the necessary food 
crops. Almost the whole of the area is capable of crop production, and approximately 6,000 square 
miles are of sufficiently high elevation to be adapted to cool climate crops. 


EUROPEAN Parts of Portuguese East Africa have been under continuous Euro- 
INFLUENCES pean influence for centuries, but the extension of control throughout 
the major part of the Colony has only been recent. 

Portugal’s East African possessions were originally completely dependent on her 
Indian possessions—so much so that the East African possessions were regarded as 
part of the State of India. The good harbors of the East African coast-line were 
convenient ports of call on the way to and from India, as indicated by the names 
Algoa and Delagoa. Occupation of the hinterland was at first purely incidental. 
Gradually, however, a thriving trade grew up between the Indian possessions and the 
African settlements. 

The next stage in the establishment of the Portuguese power was marked by the 
search for gold, especially along the Zambezi valley, which began in the sixteenth 
century. Substantial trading settlements were shortly afterwards established at 
two points on the Zambezi. Dominican and Jesuit missionaries quickly followed the 
traders. The height of Portuguese influence in the interior was attained between 
1630 and 1690, when East Africa was considered the most prosperous of the Portuguese 
possessions in the East. During this period Portuguese adventurers were installed 
as rulers of various areas instead of Native chiefs. Thus Portuguese influence was 
able to extend into the interior, and especially along the Zambezi valley, where to-day 
the prevalence of half-caste chiefs may be noted. 

By the end of the seventeenth century, Portuguese power both in Africa and 
India was being seriously threatened by the continued attacks of English and Dutch 
ships. The Arabs also were quick to take advantage of the situation, and expelled 
the Portuguese from their more northerly possessions on the East African coast. 
Meanwhile, Portuguese trade suffered a steady decline. In commerce the primary 
importance of gold gave way, first to that of ivory, then to that of slaves. At first 
East Africa could not compete with the West in the slave trade, particularly for the 
American market. As restrictions on the western trade increased, however, the 
importance of the East grew, until in the early part of the nineteenth century the slave 
trade was almost the only form of commerce practised in Portuguese Kast Africa. 
It was only put down slowly and with great difficulty after a decree of abolition in 
1836. The Colony was further weakened by Zulu invasions between 1830 and 1860. 
Lourenco Marques, Inhambane, and even Sena were captured by the invaders, who 
occupied almost the whole country south of the Zambezi. The establishment of a 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 301 


more constitutional form of government at home in the middle of the century, 
however, led to a determined effort on the part of Portugal to grapple with con- 
ditions in her East African dominions. Largely through the help of a capable 
Goanese concession holder, the country was more or less pacified. 

The latter years of the nineteenth century were mainly occupied in boundary 
disputes with other European Powers, who by this time had staked out claims all 
over Africa. The frontiers were at length determined in 1891. Hardly had the 
Native population been pacified and order established throughout the Colony than 
revolution in Portugal itself threw everything into confusion once more. The 
establishment of the Republic was followed, a few years later, by the outbreak 
of the European War, during which there was fighting in the Colony, accompanied by 
fresh outbreaks of Native rebellion. With such a history behind it, it may be 
seen that Portuguese East Africa has had but little opportunity to develop its 
resources effectively, or to deal conclusively with the problems of Native education. 

The situation is further complicated to-day by the extreme complexity of the 
administrative system of the Colony. Theoretically, all the Portuguese Colonies 
are provinces of the Portuguese Republic, and they are still represented in the home 
parliament. The Governor-General is appointed by the home Government, and the 
Minister for Colonies has the right of veto over all colonial legislation, and may even 
deprive the Governor-General of his office. The Governor’s position is rendered still 
more difficult by the fact that the Director of Finances enjoys a practically inde- 
pendent position, being directly dependent on the home Government. The Governor- 
General is assisted by a Government Council, an elective body of officials and private 
citizens, and by a Provincial Council which acts as an administrative and accounts 
tribunal. There are the usual government departments, and commissions to super- 
vise the execution of public works. The Province is divided into districts, each under 
the control of a District Governor, except the District of Lourenco Marques, in 
which the Governor-General acts as District Governor. These Districts are sub- 
divided into smaller units, varying in character in accordance with the nature of the 
population. In regions where there are important white settlements, and Natives 
of a civilized character, these subdivisions have some degree of responsibility for 
local administration. Municipal councils have been established in the important 
towns within recent years, but in most of the towns the main power rests in the hands 
of the administrator in charge. 

The judicial system of Portuguese East Africa is under the direct control of the 
home Government. In theory, no difference is made between European and Native, 
but in practice officials often act as judges in cases between Natives. 

In parts of Portuguese Kast Africa the concession system still survives. Con- 
cessions are granted to the highest bidder, who is required to cultivate a proportion 
of the land leased and to act as magistrate and tax-gatherer under the supervision of 
special government inspectors. The system has led to considerable freedom for 
individual enterprise and some agricultural experimentation. Many of the con- 


cessions have been granted to great organizations, such as the Zambezia Company, 
L2 


302 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


which sometimes sub-let them to smaller companies or individuals. Some are also 
to be found in the territory of the Mozambique Company. 

No adequate statistics are available for the compilation of a table of government 

expenditures in Portuguese East Africa, but an unusually large proportion is said 
to be spent on administration, owing to the large numbers of officials. As to expen- 
diture on Native education, the following extract from an article written by a former 
Director of Education for the Colony (Senhor Heitor Passes) is significant : 
E In the next budget . . . the appropriation for education ought to be raised, in round figures, 
to 200,000 gold escudos, this sum being retained as a minimum for future budgets. This will appear 
much, yet it is less than little. In the Union of South Africa, the Governments spend on Native 
education as much as 27 per cent. of the sum received from Native taxation. In Mozambique 
we do not spend even as much as 0.5 per cent. In fact, even in Basutoland, whose inhabitants 
are nearly all black and whose population does not exceed 450,000 individuals, Government spends 
on education almost £20,000; while in our Province, witha population almost ten times as great, 
we do not spend £3,000. 

Conditions are rendered still more complex by the large measure of independence 
granted to the two great Chartered Companies. The Mozambique Company was 
incorporated in 1888 to acquire the concession of mineral rights in the Pungwe and 
Buzi basins. In 1891, it was granted sovereign rights over the provinces of Manica 
and Sofala for twenty-five years, aperiod afterwards extended for another twenty-five. 
Its rights in these territories include those of administration and exploitation ; the 
exclusive right to develop communications and to navigate rivers ; to reserve the 
monopoly of any particular branch of legitimate trade or industry, or to grant such 
monopoly to others; exclusive rights of mining, coral, pearl and sponge. fishing, 
and elephant hunting; the right to collect all taxes already in force, and to levy 
contributions in money or labor for public works, subject to government approval. 
Its obligations include those of allegiance to the Portuguese Government and sub- 
mission to its supervision, compliance with treaties made by the Government, and 
the maintenance of land and sea forces. The Government reserves the right to 
garrison frontier posts. The Company further undertakes to respect all religious 
creeds and all such Native manners and customs as do not conflict with the principles 
of civilization and public morality ; to maintain municipal organization in all towns 
of over 500 houses containing 100 European or Indian families ; to establish primary 
schools in all towns of over 500 inhabitants, and to establish agricultural and technical 
schools in the most appropriate localities. The Government holds 10 per cent. 
of the shares of the Company and receives, in addition, 7} per cent. of the total 
net profits. All disagreements between the Government and the Company are sub- 
mitted to an arbitration board, on which both parties are represented. 

The Company’s affairs are controlled by a Council of Administration, consisting 
of from 11 to 17 Directors, of whom three are nominated by Government and of whom 
amajority must be Portuguese. The Governor of the Company, who has powers similar 
to those enjoyed by District Governors, must also be Portuguese. The administra- 
tion consists of the usual government departments, but the judicial service is organized 
by the Government rather than by the Company. Though the Mozambique Com- 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 303 


pany has not paid any dividends for some years, it is said to have been, on the whole, 
fairly successful from the administrative point of view, especially in recent years. 

The Charter of the Nyasa Company is almost identical with that of the 
Mozambique Company, with the additional exclusive right of gathering amber and 
rubber within its territories. Its lease is for 35 years, beginning in 1893. <A con- 
siderable proportion of the shares are held by a British firm known as the Nyasa 
Consolidated. Before the war many of these had been made over to German 
capitalists. Reports indicate that the achievements of this Company have not been 
satisfactory, either in the economic or administrative sphere. 

The Zambezia Company is another organization on a scale similar to that of the 
two Chartered Companies, but operating without charter. Formed in 1892, it is 
in economic control of a territory of about 80,000 square miles, with about 1,000 
miles of more or less navigable waterways. It has developed on both agricultural 
and mineral lines, and has also granted sub-concessions to various other enterprises. 

In spite of the presence of all these highly-developed economic organizations, 
Portuguese East Africa remains a fruitful recruiting ground for labor, particularly 
for the mining areas of the Transvaal. Ever since the mines came into prominence, 
they have depended upon the Portuguese Colony for a considerable proportion 
of their labor supply. The system of recruitment has for some decades been 
the subject of agreements between the authorities of the respective States. The 
Witwatersrand Native Labor Association was formed with a view to recruiting 
this labor on profitable lines. This has involved, for the most part, fair treatment 
of the Natives by the officers concerned. It is interesting to note that the two 
Chartered Companies have pursued diametrically opposite policies in regard to this 
matter of emigration of labor. The Mozambique Company, doubtless embarrassed 
by shortage of labor in their own territories, have refused to permit recruiting in their 
lands. The Nyasa Company, on the other hand, has encouraged recruiting, preferring 
to benefit by the temporary financial gain accruing from the sums paid by the 
Witwatersrand Association for each laborer recruited. 

In 1913, however, the Union Government prohibited the employment of any 
Natives from territories north of lat. 22° south, on the basis of investigations which 
showed that mine laborers from tropical areas suffered too drastically from the rigors 
of climate in the Transvaal regions. This was a serious economic loss to the Nyasa 
Company. In spite of this regulation, the number of Native laborers from Portuguese 
Kast Africa has remained very considerable in proportion to the total population. 
Thus in 1916 a total of 62,428 Native men emigrated from the Colony. Of these, 
45,494 went to the Transvaal mines, 7,744 to other work in the Transvaal, 2,086 
to Rhodesia, and 7,154 to the island of San Thomé, where there is a great demand for 
Native labor for the cocoa plantations. Conditions of recruitment for San Thomé 
have been seriously criticized. The majority of the men who go as laborers to the 
Transvaal mines return to their homes. A considerable number fail to do so, and 
represent a dead loss to the labor resources of the Colony. This proportion has been 
considerably decreased since the enactment of 1913 prohibited the employment of 


BOL EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Natives from the moretropical zones. Under the present arrangement, the Portuguese 
Government receives £1 from the Witwatersrand Association for each recruited man 
who returns to his original home. The passage of the Natives to the Transvaal is 
also paid, and each man is given a blanket. The chief receiving stations are at 
Inhambane and at Chai Chai. The camps there are kept in sanitary condition, 
and the recruiting agents are under government supervision. The contracts of engage- 
ment are drawn up in simple language, and are signed in the presence of a Portuguese 
official, whose duty it is previously to ascertain that the Native in question fully 
understands the terms of agreement. 

The Portuguese occupation of Mozambique Africa has been shown to be a series 
of unfortunate experiences that have from time to time hampered the normal develop- 
ment of the country and people. In the early centuries there were the jealousies 
and inroads of the European nations and Arabs. Later there were the raids and 
revolts of the Natives, and especially those of the fighting Zulus, who for many years 
controlled large sections of the country. Revolutions in Portugal and economic 
depressions have compelled the Portuguese to depend upon foreign capital to exploit 
the resources of the Colony. There are the commercial companies controlling 
extensive territories amounting to at least a fourth of the country and a third of the 
population. Foreign capital has furnished a large proportion of the money for 
public works such as railways and for industrial activities. Finally, there have been 
the enticing demands of economic activities such as the Transvaal mines, the planta- 
tions of San Thomé, and industrial organizations within the Colony all calling for 
Native labor. The pressing need for ready money has almost compelled the Govern- 
ment to adopt methods of labor recruiting that have deprived the country of the 
labor required for internal development. Under the circumstances it has doubtless 
seemed necessary to the Portuguese Government to resort to other means of enlarging 
the labor supply that cannot be defended according to the principles of sound econ- 
omics, sound sociology and sound government, such as requiring Native women 
to work on public highways.* 

The Colony has been improved by many miles of good roads, a considerable mileage 
of railways and port facilities. The conveniences pertaining to town and urban 
organizations have been created along the coast. Conditions of peace and order 
have been realized throughout the Colony. All this is to the credit of the Portuguese 
Government and to the advantage of the country. It seems clear, however, that 
the Colony is now confronted by serious problems of Native development that may 
permanently hinder its future prospects. 


II. EDUCATION 


There is comparatively little evidence that the Portuguese Government appreciates 
the magnitude of its responsibility for the 700,000 children of school age in Portuguese 
Africa. The few government schools are almost entirely limited to the southern 


* It is reported that this practice has recently been abandoned. 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 305 


area, including Lourengo Marques and Inhambane. Even the mission societies 
have, for numerous reasons, largely confined their work to this area. An approxi- 
mate measure of the inadequacy of school facilities for the children of 3,500,000 
people is presented in the following statements : 

1. Lourengo Marques, including the city and the Gaza area, with a population of about 350,000, 
has several small government schools and the educational work of the Swiss Mission Romande, 
the Anglicans, the Wesleyans, the Roman Catholics and other organizations. This district (with 
about one-tenth of the population in the Colony) probably contains at least two-thirds of ail the 
schools and missions in Portuguese East Africa. 

2. Inhambane, with about 400,000 Natives, has a few government schools and the important 
work of the American Free Methodist, Roman Catholic and one or two smaller missions. 

3. Quelimane, with over 700,000 Natives, has beginnings of work by the Church of Scotland, 
some Roman Catholic missions and possibly one or two smaller missions. 

4. Tete, with 400,000 Natives, has only one small Roman Catholic mission. Very unfortunately 
the excellent work of the South African Mission has been excluded from this really needy territory 
by action of the Portuguese Government. The reason assigned is the failure of the Mission to accept 
the government rule requiring the use of Portuguese as the language of instruction. It seems 
impossible to justify the loss to the Colony of such efficient teachers on such a ground. Through 
this action the 400,000 Natives are left largely without any educational influence. 

5. Mozambique district, with about 750,000 people, is reported to have only a few Roman 
Catholic schools. 

6. The Nyasa Company’s territory, with over half a million Natives, contains effective centers 
worked by the Universities’ Mission, and possibly some Roman Catholic missions. 

7. The territory of the Mozambique Company, with about 300,000 people, has a few Roman 
Catholic schools and the beginnings of a work by the American Congregationalists and American 
Methodists. It is generally and persistently reported that this area has been hostile to mission 
schools. The evidence indicates that antagonism to missionary education is more successful in 
this territory than in any part of Africa visited by the two Educational Commissions. 


One of the most serious obstacles to Native education has been the varying 
interpretations of a law passed in 1907 requiring the use of Portuguese as the language 
of instruction. Both government officials and missionaries have been confused 
as to the meaning of the law. Some officials have insisted that all teaching must be 
in Portuguese, others have required the use of the Portuguese language only in the 
higher standards. The exclusion of the vernacular as the language of instruction 
in the lower standards is contrary to all sound educational practice and is a denial 
of the fundamental right of the Native people. The insistence upon Portuguese 
as the second language of instruction is justifiable and desirable. It is to be hoped 
that the law will be clearly interpreted to mean that Portuguese is required only 
as a second language. 

- Roman Catholic missions entered the Colony with the earliest explorers, and they 
have rendered valuable service. Protestant missions have likewise served the people 
for many years. The Swiss Protestant missionaries deserve special credit for their 
influence in the Lourenco Marques district. All missions are making an earnest 
effort to cooperate with the Government. Unfortunately, Government, through 
lack of funds, or lack of policy, has given to the missions little encouragement. The 
separation of State and Church in Portugal, after the Revolution, influenced the 


306 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Roman Catholic work unfavorably. There is still evidence of considerable co- 
operation between the Government and Roman Catholics, especially in the staffing. 
of certain government schools by Portuguese Roman Catholic priests. 


GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS 


The Manual of Portuguese East Africa, published by the British Admiralty Intelli- 
gence Department in 1920, reports the existence of a considerable number of govern- 
ment schools, especially in the south, the most important being the Fifth of October 
Secondary and Technical School at Lourengo Marques. Other schools in the capital 
are maintained by the First of January Society and the Institute of Joao de Deus. 
There are special schools for Native nurses and midwives, and a school in connection 
with the Survey Department. 


Lourencgo Marques District 


In Lourengo Marques there are three municipal schools—one for boys, one for 
girls, and one mixed. There are also five government schools within the District. 


Gaza District 


At Vila Nova de Gaza, formerly Chai Chai, the headquarters of the District, there 
is a good government school for boys and girls under a certified Portuguese woman 
teacher. The enrollment comprises 4 European children and 59 Natives, and instruc- 
tion is given up to Standard IV. The building, constructed of stone and brick, 
is attractive and ample in size. There are the beginnings of a library. 

At Banlimi, about 36 kilometers from Chai Chai, the government school, under 
Portuguese Roman Catholic direction, has an enrollment of 220 pupils, boys attending 
in the mornings, girls in the afternoons. The building is well constructed of brick 
and iron. No manual work is included in the curriculum, except printing, in which 
12 boys are apprenticed. The carpentry shop is closed at present, owing to the lack 
of teaching staff. The central Government grants £3 a month to the institution, 
and the District Administration £300 a year. 

At Chongoene there is a school conducted by Roman Catholic priests, and sub- 
sidized by Government and by the District Administration. The staff consists 
of a missionary priest, a European woman teacher, and four Native teachers trained 
at the school. The school is divided into three classes, with an enrollment of 865 
boys and 97 girls in Class I; 35 boys and 7 girls in Class II, and 14 boys and 8 girls 
in Class III. The curriculum in Class I consists of the three R’s, religious knowledge 
and Portuguese; in Class II, local geography, drawing and dictation are added ; 
in Class IIT, history, geography, music and singing. In addition, the girls are taught 
housework, and the boys agriculture. There are also workshops for tailoring and 
shoemaking. Up to the present, 12 teachers, 10 tailors and 12 shoemakers have 
been trained at the school. There are about a dozen out-stations depending upon 
this central school. 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 307 


Inhambane District 


In Inhambane town there are two municipal schools—one for white and colored 
children, and the other for Natives. The instruction given is of a literary nature, 
up to about Standard III. The building of the Native school is too small for its 
enrollment. The Native school, known as the Civilizing Mission, gives training 
in Native crafts, as well as in literary subjects. At present it has only a few pupils. 
In the District there are about 10 schools situated at local government headquarters, 
mostly for boys. Literary instruction is given, including Standard II, and some 
manual training, with emphasis on carpentry. The school at Jangano makes ex- 
cellent furniture of local woods, and improved methods are being introduced at 
the Maxixi School. 


RomAN Catuoutic Missions 


There are a considerable number of Roman Catholic mission schools distributed 
throughout the Colony, mostly under the control of Portuguese priests, but there 
is practically no information available with regard to their work. The only Roman 
Catholic school independent of Government of which the Commission has definite 
information is located in the town of Inhambane. This institution, including both 
a day school and a night school, is under the control of the parish priest, with Native 
assistants. The enrollment is about 150, but the building is small. The instruction 
is wholly literary and is limited to the first three standards, 


MISSION SuIssE ROMANDE 


This Protestant mission has been exceedingly influential in the southern area of the 
Colony. Starting work in the Transvaal in 1875, it extended its activities into the 
neighboring Portuguese Colony at the request of a Native convert. In 1924, its 
Kuropean missionary staff in the Colony was 40. The Mission now reports 11 central 
stations, with 72 schools and a total enrollment of 2,727 pupils. 


Lourengo Marques Station 


The Mission owns 24 hectares of land in Lourenco Marques, on which a large 
church, school and hospital have been built. The school is divided into two depart- 
ments, junior and senior. The junior department has 120 pupils in four classes. 
It is staffed by Native teachers, two of whom hold the Segundo Grau Government 
Certificate. The senior department, comprising Classes V and VI, has 45 pupils 
under a qualified European woman teacher. The curriculum throughout the school 
includes carpentry for boys and sewing for girls. The highest class, which prepares 
pupils to enter the Union Training School, accepts members of different denominations. 

The night school has about 150 pupils attending four nights a week from 8.30 p.m. 
to 10.30 p.m. The curriculum is restricted to the three R’s, Portuguese and English, 
and the fees are 2s.a month. Many of the pupils have come from a distance to work 
in Lourengo Marques ; they doubtless spread the knowledge they have gained at 


308 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the school on their return to their homes. In the Native location the Mission main- 
tains three other primary schools, with Classes I to IV and a total of 156 pupils. 


Union School 


This school represents an unusually interesting example of inter-mission co- 
operation. It was founded in 1919 by the joint efforts of the Swiss, Wesleyan and 
Anglican Missions in Lourenco Marques. In November, 1924, three of the first pupils 
passed the Government Segundo Grau examination and immediately began teaching. 
Five of the original pupils still remain, and 13 new ones have now been added. Owing 
to the shortage of trained Native teachers, it seems necessary for pupils to accept 
teaching positions as soon as they have passed the government examination. The 
ultimate aim of the school, however, is to maintain at least two standards above the 
present grade. 


Rikatla Training College 

This institution, founded in 1907, about 16 miles from Lourenco Marques, is under 
the direction of well-qualified European teachers. The director and first assistant are 
both graduates in arts andtheology. There are also two European assistants trained 
in pedagogy and a qualified teacher in manual training. The pupils are all males 
from 16 to 30 years of age, who are training as evangelists or teachers for the Mission 
Suisse Romande or for other missions who occasionally send students to be trained. 
All pupils must pass Class IV before entering the Normal Department. At present 
there is a preparatory department, with seven pupils who have passed Class III. 
Their instruction includes the three R’s, the vernacular, Portuguese, geography, 
drawing, and religious knowledge. The students taking the first year of the normal 
course are classified in two divisions. In the first division there are four pupils, who 
have passed through the preparatory school. Three of them have previously worked 
as ordinary laborers in the mines. In the second division there are six pupils. The 
curriculum includes Portuguese, arithmetic, geography, history and Bible training. 
Gardening and woodwork are done in the afternoons. In the second year of the normal 
course (Class VI) this curriculum is supplemented by science, theoretical agriculture, 
civics and teaching practice. Class V prepares for the 1° Grau examination and Class 
VI for the 2° Grau. There is an additional class for those who wish to prolong their 
training after taking the 2° Grau examination. The fees are £8 a year for boys from 
the Swiss Mission and £12 for those from other missions. 


Chikumbane Station 


This station is situated in Gaza District, about 8 miles from Chai Chai. The 
school, housed in a brick building with cement floor and iron roof, is divided into three 
classes. The enrollment in Class I includes 56 boys and 33 girls ; in Class II, 9 boys 
and 8 girls ; in Class III, 7 boys. The curriculum includes the Bible, the three Rs 
Portuguese, geography, drawing, gymnastics for boys and sewing for girls. In Class II 
the grammar of the vernacular is added, and in Class III Portuguese history. The 


‘Byorjuy ‘oouRq IAIBN (p) 
‘eyornuy ut shoyuoq pue sAog (2) £ apequieyryy ‘Surmorg (q) § aue~Nyey_ ye spary (7) 


(1) VOINAV LSVA ASHNDALYHOd NI 





PLATE XXXVI 


4 


: q 





IN PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA (2) 
(a) An Open-air Lesson ; (6) A Lesson in Drill ; (c) Building a Mission School ; 
(d) A Sewing Class in Makulane. 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 309 


staff consists of a Native teacher, assisted by students. The work is examined by a 
white missionary at least once a year. 


ANGLICAN MISSIONS 


Universities’ Mission to Central Africa 

The central station of the Mission is on the island of Likoma in Lake Nyasa, under 
British rule, but the Mission also maintains stations in the more northerly territory of 
the Nyasa Company. Stations in Portuguese territory are Msumba, with 52 schools 
and an attendance of 930 boys and 439 girls ; Mtonya, with 14 schools, 101 boys and 
41 girls ; Vnangu, with 13 schools, 89 boys and 38 girls ; Ngoo Bay, with 11 schools, 
275 boys and 223 girls, and Kobwe station, for which statistics are not available. 


Diocese of Lebombo 


The Districts of Lourengo Marques and Inhambane fall within the Diocese of 
Lebombo, which is part of the Province of South Africa. There is a pro-cathedral in 
Lourenco Marques, and nine centers in the two Districts. At Hlamankulu, just within 
the town area of Lourenco Marques, there are two Anglican schools. 

St. Cyprian’s School.—This school has an enrollment of 90 boys and girls, who are 
taught in a simple structure of wood and iron, part of which is used as a church. The 
boys’ dormitories are rather crude quarters in which the boys sleep on the floor. The 
staff consists of a Native headmaster with the 2° Grau Certificate, one Native man and 
two European women. 

St. Christopher's Training College—This institution, under the direction of two 
European priests, is for the training of teachers and evangelists. There are 13 pupils, 
all boys, who attend the Union School for carpentry and other lessons. 

At Masiyene, in the neighborhood of Chai Chai, there is an Anglican school under 
the direction of a missionary, his wife and two European women assistants. There 
are 25 children in the infant department. The school proper is divided into four 
classes, with an enrollment of 45 boys and 15 girls in Class 1; 23 boys and 15 girls in 
Class IT; 18 boys and 17 girls in Class III, and 6 boys in Class IV. School is held for 
23 hours daily. The boys have had some instruction in agriculture, brickmaking 
and building. A large hut has been converted into a hospital under the supervision 
of a European nurse. There are 75 out-stations. The religious services in the simple, 
attractive church of this station are notably impressive. 


MeEtTHopist Episcopan MISSION 


The stations of this important Mission are in the Inhambane District. A total of 
133 primary schools is reported, with 140 Native teachers and 3,105 boys and girls. 
In addition, there are the Bodine Boys’ Boarding School, Kambini, with two white 
and two Native teachers and 30 boys ; the Kambini Boarding and Day School, with 
two Native teachers and 85 boys and girls ; the Gikuki Boarding and Day School in 


310 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Inhambane, with two Native teachers and 90 boys and girls ; the Makodweni Boarding 
School, with one Native teacher and 13 boys ; the Tabane Boarding School, with one 
Native teacher and 56 boys and girls ; and the Hartzell Girls’ School, Gikuki, with 
two white teachers and 70 girl pupils. 


Hartzell Girls’ School, Gikuki.—This school admits pupils from the age of seven up 
to womanhood. The literary instruction includes the first three grades. Emphasis 
is laid on household arts and gardening. There is also an ordinary village school, with 
boys and girls of all ages, and a hospital in charge of a European doctor. 


Central Training School, Kambini.—This institution has about 50 pupils in 
Standards IV and V. The curriculum comprises the Bible, normal work, hygiene, 
agriculture, carpentry, masonry, brickmaking, basketry. There is a special Bible 
School with 9 pupils. The building serves also as a church and as a dormitory for 
the Bodine Boys’ Boarding School. A women’s class is held every afternoon for three 
hours, at which instruction is given in the three R’s, sewing, hygiene, basketry and 
pottery. In addition to the Central Training School, there is a primary school with 
150 pupils, in classes up to Standard III. The teacher holds the 1° Grau Certificate. 
The subjects of instruction are the three R’s and Portuguese. 

The Kambini Station is particularly interesting and effective. It has a property 
of some 1,200 acres, with farm machinery, 24 work oxen and 25 cows and calves. 
There is a brick and tile yard with some good equipment, and a turbine saw-mill, 
which also provides electric light for the station. There is a printing press which 
prints books in Native languages, Portuguese and English, and a hospital and 
dispensary with an European nurse in charge. Perhaps the most interesting feature 
of the station is the model Native village near by. The houses are built by the Natives 
themselves, and are arranged in streets instead of the usual haphazard manner of 
many Native villages. The village maintains self-government through committees on 
discipline, financial matters and other subjects. Three Native nurses, two of whom 
have had special training in maternity service, are working in the village. The 
missionary in charge of the station is entrusted with the supervision of the recogaized 
government schools in the neighborhood. 


Tabane Boarding School.—This is a comparatively new school under the direction 
of the local missionary, a qualified teacher. The Native immediately in charge of 
the school holds the Segundo Grau Certificate. The curriculum includes the three 
R’s, Portuguese, drill, religious knowledge. The object of the school is to prepare 
pupils for admission to the Central Training School at Kambini. 


WESLEYAN MeEtuopist MISSIONARY SOCIETY 


This Society is reported to have sent the first Protestant missionary to Portuguese 
East Africa in 1823, The work had to be quickly abandoned, however, and was 
not resumed until 1885. The Society now maintains five primary schools in the 
Louren¢co Marques District, all conducted by certificated teachers. These schools are 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 311 


at Mavalena, with 156 pupils, including 32 girls ; Nkasana, with 78 pupils, including 
34 girls; Ngidi, with 41 pupils, 15 being girls; Masale, with 58 pupils, 381 being 
girls, Literary subjects are taught up to Class III of the Government Code. Sewing 
for girls is included in the curriculum. There is also a night school in Lourengo 
Marques, attended by 153 boys and men, under the direction of two teachers who 
conduct classes in the three R’s and Portuguese. 


CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION 


This Mission has a station at Lomweland, in the Quelimane District. The edu- 
cational work comprises a boarding school with 28 boys and 22 girls, a mid-day 
school for workers and an afternoon training class for pupil teachers. Medical work 
is carried on by a woman doctor and a nurse. Several boys are being trained as 
assistants. There are also carpentry and bricklaying departments. The girls are 
taught sewing and laundry. The total number of scholars at the station is about 151. 


AMERICAN FREE MeEtuHopist MISSION 


This Mission, with its headquarters for Portuguese East Africa at Inharrime, has 
two stations, Mabili and Inhamaxafo, founded in 1885 and 1919 respectively. 


Mabili Station, near Inharrime—The school is under the supervision of two 
American women, who hold 2° Grau certificates. It is divided into two classes, 
with an enrollment of 26 boys and 18 girls in Class I and 5 boys in Class II. The 
instruction is chiefly in the three R’s, with the addition of sewing for the girls. The 
Bible school which formerly existed is now closed. The station supervises 40 out- 
schools. 


Bible Training School, Inhamazxafo.—This institution has only recently been 
established. The pupils number 46 boys and men. The missionaries in charge have 
only lately qualified in Portuguese, and thus received their permits to teach. 


OTHER MISSIONS 


There are other missions in Portuguese East Africa whose activities are either just 
beginning or have been hindered by various difficulties. The American Congrega- 
tionalists have made several attempts to begin work in the territory of the Mozam- 
bique Company, both in Beira and across the border from Mount Silinda in Southern 
Rhodesia. The difficulties of this excellent mission reflect forms of opposition that 
cannot be justified. The South Africa General Mission, which was refused land in 
the Native reserve at Nigula, has received permission to choose a new site in an 
adjacent area set apart for European planters. The International Holiness Mission 
is said to have quarters in Chaimita. The excellent stations of the Dutch Reform 
Missions, closed by government order about 1922 on account of nonconformity 
with government rule with regard to the teaching of the Portuguese language, have 
not yet been allowed to resume their missionary and educational work. 


312 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


III. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


Native education and the welfare of the Colony are inextricably involved in the 
unfortunate economic and political conditions prevailing throughout this great 
Colony, The great potentialities of the country and the people cannot be developed 
until the present disabilities, economic, political and educational, are in process of 
correction. The record of heroic explorations of past centuries may stimulate and 
encourage valiant service, but they cannot solve the concrete and definite perplexities 
of the present day. Appreciation has already been expressed for the achievements 
of the Portuguese and their Government in the Colony. A considerable number of 
the Portuguese citizens have come to live in the Colony and to devote their energies 
to its welfare. Peace and order have been established; roads, railways and port 
facilities have been created. Even though material arrangements are largely the 
result of foreign capital, the Government deserves credit for sufficient stability to 
command investment of money and resources by citizens of other nations. The 
Colony has accordingly been substantially improved. 

With full recognition of historical services as well as of recent contributions to 
the welfare of the Colony it must be admitted that it is futile to hope for the necessary 
educational facilities until the Government can guarantee a greater continuity of 
economic and political policy. The chief obstacles to colonial development are : 
(1) That the Portuguese Government is so completely occupied with home difficulties 
as to be unable to give proper direction to this great Colony, situated at such a distance 
from the home country ; (2) that the vast extent of country, divided into independent 
districts by geographical position and by almost sovereign authority given to com- 
mercial companies for large areas intravening between the various districts, hinders 
the necessary uniformity of policy; (3) that the lack of capital to effect internal 
developments has necessitated the encouragement of labor migration to other 
colonies, thus depriving the country of its labor supply ; (4) that Government, and 
especially commercial companies, have failed to realize the vital importance of 
policies, educational and otherwise, related to the welfare of the Native people. 

The failure to formulate and execute sound policies for the development of the 
Native people is evidenced by the almost negligible provision for Native education 
and by the lack of any substantial encouragement in support of the valuable educa- 
tional services of missions. The extreme emphasis on the use of the Portuguese 
language has in some instances seemed to indicate an antagonism to mission education. 
The notable instance of this is the exclusion of the remarkably effective educational 
work of the Dutch Reformed Church, where the Natives were being taught lessons 
of industrial skill and agriculture, health and hygiene, and sound character. Loyalty 
of missions to the Government in control is of course a legitimate requisite. This 
includes a recognition of the government language as a subject of instruction. Even 
the value of the government language seems rather unimportant as compared with 
the simple and fundamental educational need of the 400,000 people in the Tete 
District who were the special concern of the devoted and sensible missionaries of the 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 313 


Duteh Reformed Church. It seems certain that a genuine appreciation of Native 
education would have enabled the Government to prevail upon the missionaries 
to conform to their rules. Indeed, evidence indicates that the missions were rapidly 
making efforts to carry out the government demands. The incident has seemed 
to require this emphasis, not only in the interest of the 400,000 Natives, but 
much more as a striking Ulustration of the -failure to understand the over- 
whelming importance of securing a Native people trained in the simple necessities 
of life. 

Aneven more emphatic evidence of the lack of a sound policy for the development 
of the Natives are the persistent and general reports of various forms of forced labor 
in different parts of the Colony. Rumours of forced labor have been heard in 
other colonies, but nowhere have they been sufficiently definite and persistent to 
warrant mention as an obstacle to Native development. Elsewhere, too, there 
have been definite guarantees that the appearance of force would be severely con- 
demned and eradicated. Unfortunately in the Portuguese Colonies it has not been 
possible to find any adequate guarantee that forced labor cannot exist. The 
economic and political conditions already enumerated make possible many forms 
of injustice. So serious does the general situation seem to be as to warrant the 
hope that Portugal may invite the assistance of those experienced in colonial 
affairs for the cooperative study of the potentialities of their great African colonies 

nd their needs along all lines. There are problems of economics, of hygiene and 
sanitation, agricultural development, roads and highways, the effective and humane 
use of labor, land tenure and political administration, that are worthy of con- 
sideration by the most experienced students of colonial policies. 

Portugal’s colonial policy in Africa involves Angola in the West and Mozambique 
in the East with a total area of 912,000 square miles, approximately 57 times that of 
Portugal, 10 times that of Great Britain, and almost one-third of that of the United 
States of America. The Native population of the two Colonies is almost equal to 
that of the Negroes in the United States or the combined population of Natives in 
Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda. This would be a staggering responsibility even 
for one of the Great Powers with ample capital and all the machinery of education 
and colonization. The remarkable potentialities of people and country call insis- 
tently for development. It is inevitable that they shall be given the opportunity 
to take their place in the notable progress now in process throughout both East and 
West Africa. 

The Education Commission to West Africa in their Report of 1921 expressed the 


conviction— 
that hope for the future of Angola seems to rest, in the first instance, upon the statesmanship 
of the recently inaugurated High Commissioner, Senhor Norton de Matos ; secondly, upon an intel- 


ligent and sincere interest in the welfare of the Colony on the part of the Government in Lisbon ; 
and, thirdly, upon a sound public opinion among the people of Portugal. 


Four years have passed, and the hope has proved to be futile. The statesmanship 


314 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of Senhor Norton de Matos has not succeeded, and he has resigned. There is no 
substantial evidence that the Lisbon Government can give effect to the profession 
of interest in the African colonies. Public opinion in Portugal seems to be too 
much concerned with internal problems to give thought to colonial affairs, however 
important. Where, then, is the hope for the future? The Education Commission 
has observed real evidence of rapid and genuine progress of people and country in 
practically all the areas visited in East Africa. Observations in Portuguese Africa 
and reports from Angola offer practically no basis for hope of any essential improve- 
ments in colonial policy. Colonial officers have been most cordial and courteous ; 
they have given every personal assurance of interest in the Native people and in 
colonial welfare. Some material improvements are being effected as regards roads 
and railways and public utilities. There is, however, no substantial guarantee that 
the principles of sound economics, sound sociology and sound education will be 
effectively applied in the colonial reorganization absolutely essential to the future 
of the Colony and its people. 

An effective type of education related to the needs of the people would do Pace 
to lift the Colony from its present unfortunate condition to higher and better levels 
more comparable with those in neighboring colonies, The friendly encouragement 
of missions by Government without any financial help would have important results. 
Comparatively small financial subsidies to mission schools would stimulate and 
encourage them to endeavors that would be most profitable to the country and the 
people. For the consideration of those who are specially concerned in educational 
policy the following recommendations are presented : 

(1) A government Director of Education should be appointed with a department 
equal in dignity and resources to the larger divisions of Government. In view of the 
widely separated districts and the commercial control of some areas, the Government 
should appoint representatives of the educational department in each area. 

(2) One of the important agencies for the encouragement and direction both of 
Native education and general Native development is the Advisory Committee on 
Native Education now being appointed in practically every East African colony. 
This Committee should be composed of representatives of Government, Roman 
Catholic and Protestant missions, and settlers and traders. As soon as possible 
representatives of the Natives should be included on this Committee. Such an 
organization meeting regularly as the guests of the Government would do much to 
develop harmony and effectiveness in all educational activities. The extensive 
areas of this Colony will doubtless require sub-committees of the central organization 
to consider the more local problems in the widely separated districts. 

(3) Financial appropriations for education should constitute a fair proportion 
of the total expenditures. In some colonies the educational appropriation, together 
with the other expenditures for health, agriculture and other interests of the Natives, 
is about equal to the Native taxation. 

(4) In view of the limited funds available for government departments, it is 
urged that a comprehensive program of education related to the health, agricultura] 


PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA 315 


and industrial needs of the people would largely supplement the special departments 
responsible for such colonial interest as health and agriculture. Reference to the 
chaptef in this Report on Objectives and Adaptations shows the vital contribution 
which education may make if it is interpreted in relation to the practical needs of 
the Native community. 

(5) The school system should be organized so as to provide for the training of 
Native leadership as well as for the education of the masses. Both leaders and 
masses must be trained to understand the fundamental lessons and practices of 
health, agriculture and industry, the decencies of the home and healthful recreation. 
The gradations of schools required to realize these objectives are: 1. The local or 
village school under a Native teacher. 2. An intermediate school under the supervision 
of an Kuropean teacher. 38. A central school with European and Native teachers 
and dormitory facilities. Every missionary society should endeavor to have 
these three grades of schools with progressive education. The Colony will require 
a central institution of colonial dimensions to which pupils from any district or any 
mission may go when they have completed the local requirements. There should 
also be special schools for the education of Native girls in the more advanced standards. 
These schools should be under the direction of women, whether Roman Catholic 
Sisters or Protestant women missionaries. For the dissemination of information 
among the masses of the people it will be necessary to organize extension activities 
providing farm demonstrators, sanitarians and home demonstrators to travel among 
the people. 

(5) The diverse agencies of education require supervision, so that standards and’ 
ideals may be realized with as much uniformity as possible. The government 
Department of Education and the missionary societies should invite the maintenance 
of effective supervision. A form of supervision now being generally adopted in 
African colonies is that of the Native visiting teachers, who travel regularly among 
the small out-schools helping the local teachers to relate their school work to the 
simple needs of the African village. Both school organization and supervision are 
described in the chapter on School Administration. 


CHAPTER XV 
ABYSSINIA 


NCONQUERED, unknown and undeveloped, Abyssinia is at once a country 
Ie great material resources and a country of serious and difficult problems. 
The most unique element in the position of the Empire is its independence of 
European control. This is explained first, by the geographical inaccessibility of 
the country, and second, by the native powers of the ruling population representing 
Semitic, Hamitic and Negroid stocks. The remarkable agricultural possibilities 
of the country, including almost half the cultivable soil of temperate climates in 
East Africa, must inevitably respond to the demand of the world for the necessities 
of life. The increasing facility of transportation and travel will necessarily compel 
the participation of this great Empire in the economic activities of civilization. 

The geographic position of the country in North-east Africa with European colonies 
encircling its territory, nationalistic Egypt close at hand, and restless India not 
far away, all add to the impending character of Abyssinian possibilities. Already 
there is the constant danger that uncontrolled Abyssinian tribes may cross into 
neighboring colonies for any one of numerous reasons, not the least of which is the 
possession of arms by the Abyssinians and the prohibition of arms to Natives of 
European colonies. The competition and rivalries of foreign Powers for special 
privileges of economic exploitation may easily become acute. France owns the single 
seaport, and French capital controls the only railway that joins the vast resources 
of Abyssinia with the sea. The British are reported to have treaty rights controlling 
the railroad privileges from the capital to the western boundary of the country. 
Internal perplexities of political, economic or religious interests may at any time 
result in an upheaval that would require the intervention of interested European 
nations. The grave results of such intervention to Abyssinia and the strain upon 
the friendship of nations are not difficult to imagine. In the present awakening of 
Africa, and especially of East Africa, it seems certain that this great inland Empire 
will be forced upon the attention of the world. 

The time is opportune, and the need is urgent for constructive methods to enable 
Abyssinians to work out their destiny in a natural way with full regard for their 
political and economic independence as well as for their national customs. The 
“advantages and disadvantages of inaccessibility must soon end. For good or for 
ill Abyssinia must enter the stream of civilized activities. Self-determination, 
to the exclusion of the natural exchanges of nations and peoples, is as contrary 
to sound international relations as the oppression of one nation by another. Political 
independence should not necessitate separation from the modern achievements of 
health and sanitation, the decencies and safeties of proper housing, the conveniences 
and advantages of roads and railways, and the prosperity and power of land well 


cultivated and resources used for the people. 
316 


ABYSSINIA 317 


National hermitage and insularity are neither justifiable nor permanently possible 
if they depend upon the continuation of barbaric customs inimical to health and 
happiness, the denial of rights and opportunities to the masses, and the exclusion 
of educational influences for the improvement of health, industrial and agricultural 
skill, and of character. ‘‘ Unconquered” Abyssinia should not, and will not, for 
long be “unknown and undeveloped.” It is to the discredit of Abyssinia and to 
civilization that even the important population of that great Empire is so unknown 
as to be estimated at from four millions to ten millions and even at fifteen millions. 
Such ignorance is a menace to the peace of Abyssinia and the world, and an unpardon- 
able disregard of responsibility for undeveloped resources and for a stagnated people 
who should be sharing the privileges and the duties of modern life. 

The vital problem now confronting, not only Abyssinia, but also East Africa 
and the nations whese peace and prosperity are involved, is how and when that 
Empire is to become a factor in world affairs. Shall it be by way of exploitation, 
whether by selfish classes within the Empire or by ruthless rivalries of foreign agencies, 
thus adding another element of perplexity in international relationships ? Or 
shall it be by way of international cooperation and the encouragement of the 
Abyssinians to adopt the processes of development based upon sound economics, 
sound sociology, sound government and, above all, sound education related to the 
physical welfare, the mental capacities and the moral and religious needs of the 
people ? 

Such questions are always more easily asked than answered, and, in the case 
of Abyssinia, they are almost hopelessly baffling to those who have any real knowledge 
of conditions within the Empire. The difficulty is to determine those forms of 
constructive effort that are possible under the perplexing conditions of Abyssinian 
government, church and community life. In general it seems obvious that adapted 
education is the most constructive and acceptable approach ; but coincident with 
educational activities there must be stability of government, at least a trend toward 
economic prosperity, sufficient religious liberty to encourage the cooperation of 
religious organizations, and genuine participation in world affairs, however limited 
in extent. The real task, however, is to find the agencies and organizations in 
Abyssinia and elsewhere which give evidence of sufficient permanence, wisdom and 
unselfishness to initiate and maintain an educational program of value to the people 
and the country. Part I of this chapter presents the economic and sociological 
background of education. Part II describes the almost negligible beginnings of 
education. Part III summarizes the elements, the possible agencies and movements, 
that may bring about the development of the education required in this unique, 
picturesque and promising inland Empire of Ethiopia. - 


I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 


The great inland Empire of Abyssinia constitutes the northern end of East Africa ; 
it is separated from the Red Sea by the narrow stretch of Italian Eritrea, and from 
the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean by French, British and Italian Somaliland. 


318 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 





Sustee 
sates 


















\ BRITISH 


NSOMALILAND 
eHarar . 


* ee, 


Sherada yp ay 7 


be 7 


me , 
pie 


ya / 
g 6 


o Bari 


SCALPEL a Za , 


=; a“. ome 4 as ae 6 ae 






Pa tel % ITALIAN 
SOMALILAND 





UGANDA 








ABYSSINIA 319 


It extends from 3° to 15° north lat., and occupies about the same position in 
Kast Africa as Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. 
Abyssinia’s extensive highlands, however, have great climatic advantages over 
any part of West Africa. Its area of about 350,000 square miles is almost equal 
to that of Nigeria, three times that of Great Britain and Ireland, and larger than 
all the Atlantic Coast States including Florida. Comparatively little is known 
of the density of population; authoritative sources give estimates varying from 
four million to ten million people. 


THE The essential Abyssinia is in the extensive highlands of the north- | 
COUNTRY west, estimated by Dr. Shantz to have an area of 139,000 square miles, 
practically 40 per cent. of the total area. He states that the ‘ list 
of crops includes almost all that are grown in America. At lower elevations banana 
and coffee do well. The area of land planted each year with cereals such as barley, 
wheat, oats and teff must be very large and may equal five to eight million acres. 
Large herds of cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, goats and sheep feed on these high- 
lands throughout the year. In many places fruits do well, although they have not 
been grown extensively by the Abyssinians.”’ 
This region has been often compared to Switzerland, but with the significant 
difference noted in the Handbook of Abyssinia compiled by the British Foreign 
Office : 


In Switzerland, the heights are barren peaks, the valleys fairly broad and fertile. In Abyssinia, 
all this is reversed. The heights are mostly open plateaux, the valleys jungle-choked gorges or 
canyons of great depth. The population lives on the plateau, and the lines of communication follow 
the high ground, the valleys being formidable obstacles to traffic. 


The average height of the north-west plateau is about 5,000 to 6,000 feet, though 
some of the peaks in the Simyen region attain to an altitude of 15,500 feet. The 
general slope of the plateau is towards the west, and nearly all the rivers flow in that 
direction, the most important being the Abbai or Blue Nile. In the extreme west 
the plateau descends in a series of terraces to the Sudan plain. 

The rivers in the highland districts are important as potential water-power rather 
than as means of communication. In fact, with their torrential courses and their 
deep, narrow gorges, seldom spanned by bridges, they constitute rather a barrier 
to communication. Some of the rivers in the lower country are navigable for part 
of their course, but many lose themselves in swamps. ‘The climate of Abyssinia 
varies in accordance with the differences in altitude. In the plains it is purely 
tropical ; in the highland regions it is temperate, though with considerable variation 
in temperature as between day and night. Owing to the temperate climate of the 
highlands and their suitability for European settlement, similar areas in other 
countries are known as “‘ white man’s country.” 

In addition to the 139,000 square miles of highlands, Abyssinia is estimated to 
have 58,000 square miles of lowlands suited to warm climate crops, such as Kaffir 


320 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


corn, sweet potatoes and grain sorghum. The acreage of cotton which could be 
cultivated in this region is estimated to amount to 3,000,000 acres. These 
lowlands are situated to the east and south of the great highland plateau. 
The remainder of Abyssinia, amounting to about 150,000 square miles, is said 
to consist of grazing land, much of which is sandy and almost arid, with culti- 
vable areas of highlands and lowlands to the east and south. The Danakil 
Lowlands in the north-east consist almost entirely of sandy and rocky waste in 
which many rivers terminate. 

The Somali Plateau, in the south-east, with a maximum height of 3,000 feet, 
begins in the Harar Hills and gradually declines towards the Indian Ocean. Harar 
itself is surrounded by fertile land and forest, but to the south and east the plateau 
falls away in vast expanses of savannah gradually turning to desert. The south- 
western region combines high plateaux with peaks attaining a height of 11,000 feet, 
the Boran Desert, and the Sidan Plateau, a fertile region with an elevation of 6,000 
feet. The Eastern Rift Valley, with lakes and high mountain walls, runs across the 
whole of this section. The land to the west of this valley is mountainous and much 
cut up by rivers. 

It is evident that the wealth of Abyssinia is represented, first, in the great culti- 
vable highlands with temperate climate in the north-west ; secondly, in the cultivable 
lowlands to the east and west of the highlands ; thirdly, in the extensive grazing 
lands and scattered areas of fertile country to the east, south and south-west. The 
forests of Abyssinia are said to abound in valuable timbers and rubber. The variety 
of live stock combines those of the temperate and tropical zones. Hides and skins 
constitute the main articles of export. A little gold is found both in mineral and 
alluvial form. Deposits of iron, coal, copper and sulphur are reported, but 
their extent is unknown. Oil concessions have recently been granted to foreign 
countries. 

While there is much general knowledge of Abyssinia and its resources, there is 
little that is definite and exact. The estimates are sufficient, however, to warrant 
the conviction that the country has potentialities at least equal to those of the richest 
colonies in Africa. 


THE The general ignorance of Abyssinia is strikingly illustrated by the wide 
PEOPLE divergencies of the estimates of the population, from 4,000,000 in the 

Encyclopedia Britannica to 10,000,000 in the Statesman’s Yearbook.* It 
seems strange that the population of a country of such possibilities as Abyssinia 
should still be so largely unknown. Travelers’ reports describe the people as an 
agglomeration of different races, including Negroid, Hamitic and Semitic stock. 
The territorial distribution and proportions of these racial types and admixtures are 
not sufficiently known to warrant estimates of any accuracy. The largest groups 


* Following the Staltesman’s Yearbook, the title Abyssinia has heen retained in the Report. 
Kithiopia is officially used in the country itself and is gradually coming into general use. 


ABYSSINIA 321 


are the dominant Abyssinians, said to constitute about a third of the population, and 
the Gallas, supposed to form the bulk of the remaining population. In addition, there 
are a great variety of tribes representing a wide diversity of physical types and 
Native customs. The official name of the country is reported to be Ethiopia, and the 
title of the Native people of all origins is Ethiopians. 

The dominant race, or Abyssinians proper, are said to be of Hamitic stock, 
with an admixture of certain Semitic and Negroid elements. They present 
considerable variations in color and in type of features. Their language, Amharic, 
is of Semitic origin, and is the predominating language of Abyssinia. This race 
occupies most of the highlands north of Addis Ababa and west of the Danakil 
Lowlands. The ruling family, which belongs to this race, is commonly supposed 
to be descended from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. A Semitic cast of feature 
is distinctly noticeable. The Abyssinians are Christians of the ancient Coptic 
Church. 

The Gallas, who occupy almost the whole of south and south-west Abyssinia, 
are reported to be mainly Hamitic, though quite distinct from the Abyssinians. 
They invaded the country about the sixteenth century, but were ultimately dominated 
by the older inhabitants. Some of them are pagan, others are Mohammedan or 
Christian. The Abyssinians have attempted in the past to impose Christianity upon 
them by force, but with only partial success. 

The majority of the other inhabitants consist of various tribes of Negroid ex- 
traction, some agricultural, others pastoral ; some pagan, others Moslem, but all 
relatively primitive and barbarous. These tribes are known in Amharic under the 
generic term of “ Shankallah,” and are regarded by the other races as inferior. Other 
distinctive peoples are the Danakils of the north-east—a nomadic Moslem race of 
Arab extraction; and the Falasha tribe, who although of Hamitic stock practise 
a form of the Jewish religion. 

Abyssinia is essentially a pastoral and agricultural country. Beyond a few 
flour mills worked by water-power, factory and workshop industry is unknown 
among the Natives. The commonest arts and crafts are basket-work, pottery, iron- 
work and silver-work. There is a general tendency among the people to despise 
manual labor, and many of them are still in the pastoral stage. Large herds of 
cattle are common. Agricultural methods and implements are rather primitive, 
though considerably in advance of the other Native Africans considered in this 
Report. The hoe stage has been replaced by the use of cattle and plow. Theoreti- 
cally, all land belongs to the imperial crown, and is liable to forfeiture in case of 
misconduct, but in practice land is often bought and sold, especially in and near the 
towns, though title-deeds are said to be non-existent. A rough feudal system prevails 
over the greater part of the country. This system has its usual accompaniments of 
serfdom and forced labor for the landlord. There appears to be a discouraging 
survival of slavery in parts of Abyssinia. Every layman is liable for military service, 
though the actual standing army is small. Men usually carry firearms or other 
weapons. About one quarter of the adult male population are either priests, monks, 


322 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


or holders of some minor ecclesiastical office. Many of the women have a status 
resembling that of nuns. 

There is said to be a noticeable absence of real villages. They are rather clusters 
of small farmsteads at some distance from one another, usually surrounded by patches 
of enclosed land. The capital, Addis Ababa, established about forty years ago, 
has been described as a cluster of villages in a grove of eucalyptus trees, rather than 
a town in the European sense, although it has a permanent population of about 
75,000, with an additional floating population of 20,000 to 30,000, who come in from 
the surrounding country to market their produce and then return home. In former 
days there was no permanent capital; the Emperor changed his residence as soon 
as the store of timber in the neighborhood was exhausted. Permanent buildings 
have been erected and vested interests developed largely by Europeans. It is there- 
fore not probable that there will again be a move, certainly not in the near future. 
The headquarters of Moslem influence is another center of considerable size. It is 
a typical Arab walled town of 45,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, with practically no 
sanitary facilities. Dire Dawa, a railway center between Djibouti and Addis Ababa, 
is a small town with numerous European shops and residences and two or three short 
streets resembling the smaller colonial towns. In the country both peasants and 
animals usually herd together in single-roomed huts with plastered walls and thatched 
roofs. The wealthier classes usually live in one-storied stone houses. 

The primitive condition of the masses of the population and the absence of sani- 
tation increase the danger of epidemic and other diseases. Leprosy is unusually 
prevalent. Venereal diseases are common, small-pox is still fairly frequent, though 
vaccination is gradually gaining ground. No statistics are available, but the death- 
rate is thought to be very high. Largely owing to the high rate of infantile mortality, 
families are small. The Christians are monogamists in theory, but they often have a 
succession of wives, owing to the facility of divorce and general laxity in administra- 
tion of the marriage laws. The position of women is usually low. In the upper 
classes they do little work and are kept in seclusion, being heavily veiled on their rare 
excursions into the outer world. 

The staple food of the people is bread, mostly made from millet. Fruit and 
vegetables are rarely eaten. Alcoholic drinks are brewed and drunkenness is common, 
even among the Mohammedans. Smoking is not general. 

Dancing is a favorite recreation, being also a frequent accompaniment of religious 
ceremonies. Music is popular, and there are several kinds of Native stringed instru- 
ments. The art of painting exists in a crude form. There is a rich store of legend, 
tradition and folk-lore in the possession of the Church, the old manuscripts being 
jealously guarded in the monasteries. 

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Abyssinia, as compared with other parts 
of Africa, is its ancient form of Native Christianity. The country is said to have been 
converted to Judaism about 1000 B.c., and considerable traces of Judaic infi-ence 
still remain, especially among the Falasha tribe. The Mosaic law is said to be the 
foundation of the accepted criminal code. Tradition reports that Christianity was 


ABYSSINIA 323 


introduced into the country as early as the first century a.p., but it is more probable 
that the real date was about the fourth century. The Abyssinian Church has remained 
under the domination of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, which always provides the 
Abuna, or chief Bishop, of Abyssinia. Both the Abyssinian and the Coptic Churches 
maintain a belief in the single nature of Christ, the monophysite heresy which was 
condemned by a Church Council in the fifth century. The Scriptures are written in 
Géez, a dead language only known to the priests and not fully understood by all of 
them. The Church is a wealthy corporation, owning vast lands and many serfs. 
It exerts a strong influence over the minds of the people, mainly on the side of reaction. 
There are ecclesiastical courts which try such cases as heresy and divorce. The 
Abyssinians are punctilious in observing the external ceremonies of religion. Good 
Churchmen keep about 150 holidays and feast days in the year, including Saturdays 
(the Jewish Sabbath) as well as Sundays. They fast on Wednesdays and Fridays 
almost throughout the year, and for 40 days in Lent and 40 days before Christmas. 
As in the Greek Church, while the monks are celibate, the secular clergy must marry 
while they are yet deacons, though they may only marry once. 

The Abyssinian Empire is theoretically an absolute monarchy under the Negus 
Negasti (King of Kings), but certain feudal checks operate to limit his influence. 
The Empire is an agglomeration of what were formerly separate kingdoms and princi- 
palities. Abyssinia has a long story of inter-tribal warfare, Moslem invasion, jealous 
rivalries of rulers and dynasties and, latterly, complexities of Kuropean intrigue. 
The Empire has been unified, in more or less its present form, since the middle 
of jast century. Since then, while the Abyssinian power has expanded towards 
the south and west, European spheres of influence have been established all along 
the coast line, cutting the Empire off from the sea. Its position was consolidated 
and its independence finally established by the Emperor Menelik, who reigned from 
1889 till 1908. He was succeeded by his grandson, Lij Yasu, who being unsuited 
in character for kingly responsibility and involved in anti-Christian intrigue, was 
deposed in 1916 in favour of his aunt, a daughter of Menelik, now the Empress 
Zaiditu. Her kinsman, Ras Tafari, the heir to the throne, acts as Regent in her 
name, but the Empress, who has the support of the Church, exerts a considerable 
influence in the country. 

The Prince Regent, Ras Tafari, was educated in Abyssinia and received the 
advantages of both Abyssinian and European instructors. He speaks French, and 
is genuinely interested in European and American achievements of industry, educa- 
tion and government. He is still a young man and is eager to develop his country 
and his people so that they may profit by the best experience of progressive nations. 
His rise to power constitutes one of the chief grounds of hope for the future develop- 
ment of Abyssinia. 

The Abyssinian Empire is divided into 17 major provinces, each under the adminis- 
tration of a military governor. These provinces are subdivided into smaller districts 
under headmen. Some degree of centralization is achieved by means of frequent 
conferences between these local rulers. In the reign of Menelik an attempt was 


324 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


made to institute a council of ministers on European lines. This council still meets, 
but its functions are indefinite and its influence uncertain. Taxation is heavy, but 
owing to leakage and the practice of “ farming ” the taxes the central revenue does 
not benefit greatly. No adequate data exist for a table of government expenditures 
in Abyssinia. 

Law is usually administered in accordance with local usage, which varies greatly 
from one part of the country to another. Criminal law is regarded largely as a 
question of private vengeance, the relatives of the injured person usually themselves 
inflicting upon the criminal the punishment prescribed by the judge. Round the 
capital, criminal justice is strictly enforced, though punishments are somewhat 
barbarous. In outlying parts of the country, however, the administration of justice 
and the preservation of law and order as a whole are said to be defective. 


EUROPEAN European influences have operated more indirectly in the case of 
INFLUENCES Abyssinia than in other parts of Africa. They have, however, been 

none the less potent. Strategically situated on the route to the 
East, Abyssinia could hardly escape the clash of European rivalries, increasing 
as the Eastern question assumed importance in international relations. 

In the Middle Ages little was heard of Abyssinia beyond the appearance of an 
embassy from that country, for some reason now unknown, at Avignon during the 
Papacy of Clement V in the fourteenth century. Representatives from the Abyssinian 
monastery at Jerusalem attended the Council of Florence in 1439. This led to a growth 
of interest in Abyssinia, culminating in the sending of an embassy to that country 
from Portugal. The Portuguese rendered some effective assistance to the Abyssinians 
in expelling Moslem invaders. They also sent Jesuit missionaries, who settled in 
Abyssinia. The Jesuits were ultimately expelled from the country in the seventeenth 
century. From that time the country remained closed to Europeans until it was 
visited by the explorer James Bruce in 1769. 

Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign led to the growth of British interest in Abyssinia, 
From that time onwards, the external history of Abyssinia is largely concerned with 
the rivalry of France and Britain, with Italy as a later though equally vigorous 
competitor. Germany and Austria only appeared upon the field a few years before the 
Great War. Turkey had long exercised a shadowy suzerainty over the Abyssinian 
coast line. In 1865, Egypt, following the expansionist policy of the Khedive Ismail, 
claimed the Turkish rights over the coast. In 1869, the opening of the Suez Canal 
rendered the shores of the Red Sea doubly important to the European Powers. An 
Italian steamship company bought some land from the local chieftain near Asab 
Bay to serve as a port of call on the way to India. This territory was gradually 
extended, and in 1882 was formally taken over by the Italian Government. Some 
years of fighting followed. 

One of Menelik’s first acts in 1889 was to sign a treaty with Italy defining the 
limits of the Italian territory on the coast. But as soon as he had consolidated his 
power he repudiated this treaty, and in 1895 war broke out with Italy. In the 


PLATE XXXVII 


pue Avyzy oy} uy (2) 


¢ 


“qoyre oY} Ul 990g 4yIMO_ (p) £ oyIRP [OOAA 
JOYILTY 91q¥I9H9A oT, (q) § MOTA [RIOUDy) : Equay SIPPV 
(1) VINISSAGV NI 


ye yoyreyy (Dp) 





Pirate XXXVIII 


ALD VED TT W (p) £ seyorD Suryseaa vay (9) 
£ yJO[ U0}jJO) SuravaAa (q) * pvatyy, U0W}OD puv WOOT SUIABIAA (D) 
(3) VINISSAGV NI 





ABYSSINIA 325 


struggle which followed, Menelik gained a large measure of success, and was able to 
make an advantageous peace consolidating his possessions and expressly maintaining 
the complete sovereignty and independence of his Empire. The peace was followed 
by a succession of treaties with all neighboring Powers, defining the boundaries of 
Abyssinia. Menelik, though suspicious of anything curtailing his authority, was 
alive to the advantages of developing trade with European peoples, and at various 
times during his reign made commercial treaties with Italy, France, Great Britain, 
Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Belgium. He also granted numerous con- 
cessions to European firms and individuals, the most important being the Djibouti 
railway concession. Though much of the original capital was British, the concession 
was made to a French company, and the railway is to-day worked almost entirely by 
French officials. Among other important concessions was that granted in 1905 
to the Bank of Egypt for the creation of a Bank of Abyssinia. 

Missionary work in Abyssinia was hampered at the outset by the mistakes of 
the Portuguese Jesuits in the sixteenth century. No further missionary attempts 
were made until 1829, when a representative of the Church Missionary Society 
arrived in the country, to be followed in 1834 by some Franciscan missionaries from 
Rome. These attempts ended in failure, owing in part to the hostility of the Native 
Church. In 1838 all Protestant missionaries were expelled. In 1856 a group of 
representatives of the Basel Mission, mostly lay handicraftsmen, were allowed to 
establish themselves in the country, but only on condition that they confined their 
evangelistic activities to the distribution of the Scriptures. Some English mis- 
sionaries were sent to the Falasha Jews, but were arrested in 1863, all other Europeans 
in the country being seized and imprisoned shortly afterwards. It was this incident 
which led to the intervention of a British and Indian force under Sir Robert Napier, 
culminating in the defeat and suicide of the Emperor Theodore. After his death, 
and particularly after the accession of Menelik in 1889, the country was gradually 
opened to Europeans. The missionary organizations now at work in Abyssinia, 
in addition to the British and Foreign Bible Society, are the United Presbyterian 
Church of North America, two Swedish Protestant societies, the Seventh Day 
Adventists, and one or two French Roman Catholic agencies. Their staff is small, 
and their work is mainly concentrated in and around the capital. 

The total European population of Abyssinia amounts only to a few hundreds, 
almost all living in Addis Ababa, in Dire Dawa, mainly in the service of the railway, the 
Bank of Abyssinia or the legations of the respective countries, and in Harar. There are 
one or two European factories and trading firms and a number of small individual 
traders, mainly Greeks and Armenians. The experimental farm planned by Colonel 
Sandford, the correspondent of the London Times, is a unique development, and 
constitutes almost the only example of European agricultural method in Abyssinia. 

The growth of a new and more cooperative spirit towards Europe has been 
noticeable since Ras Tafari’s accession to power. The most significant manifestation 
of this new spirit has been Abyssinia’s application for admission to membership of 


the League of Nations, which was granted in 1923. 
M 


326 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


II. EDUCATION 


The more thoughtful Abyssinians are increasingly recognizing the value of educa- 
tion as a means of improving the people and the country. The Prince Regent has 
manifested his interest by sending about twenty-five Abyssinian youths to Kurope 
and America and by financial gifts to the educational work of missionary societies. 
He has also erected an attractive and substantial school building near his palace, 
to which he plans to admit capable students. The demand for school opportunities 
is steadily growing stronger and more general. 


CHURCH AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 


The ancient Abyssinian Church maintains a formal and traditional type of church 
school, whose chief concern seems to be instruction in Géez, the dead language under- 
stood by only a proportion of the priests. Most of these schools contain only a few 
pupils, who recite Géez writings as a kind of memory exercise. Almost the only 
practical value of these schools is in the fact that they teach the alphabetic characters 
which are identical with those of Amharic, the language of the Abyssinians. In the 
few towns and important centers the Church maintains four grades of instruction. 
In the lowest grade the pupils learn the Géez alphabet and read the psalter in Géez. 
In the second grade the learning of hymns is added; in the third rhetoric, poetry 
and grammar; in the fourth, instruction is given in the Bible and in the Book of 
the Law, called Iatha Negast. The priests who teach in these schools are known as 
dabteras, or learned men. They also help in the service of the Church, but cannot 
administer the Communion. No fees are charged in these schools. The sons and 
sometimes the daughters of the upper class people are instructed privately by the 
dabteras in their own homes. The educational value of the church school system is 
exceedingly small in quantity. and of indifferent quality. 

The only government school in the country was founded by Menelik in 1907. 
The teachers are all of the Coptic Orthodox faith. There are at present about 160 
pupils, some 20 per cent. of whom have been in the school four years or more. The 
program of the Egyptian government schools is followed for the most part, but 
the majority of the pupils prefer to learn French rather than English. Nohandicrafts 
are taught as yet. Entrance is open to all Abyssinian subjects who can speak and 
write Amharic, and there is no age limit, married men being sometimes admitted 
as pupils. In spite of the fact that there are no fees, the attendance is reported 
by Abyssinian authorities themselves as being “the worst in the world.”” Some 
3,000 pupils are said to have passed through the school since its foundation, most 
_of the old pupils being in government service as interpreters, accountants or secretaries. 
Some Native teachers have been trained, with satisfactory results. 

In comparison with the educational needs of the millions of people in Abyssinia, 
this summary of government provision and interest in education reflects the utter 
inadequacy of present arrangements for schools throughout the great Empire. Pro- 
testant and Roman Catholic missions maintain schools, but as yet they are very 


ABYSSINIA 327 


largely confined to Addis Ababa and a few other centers. No greater need for educa- 
tional help exists anywhere in Africa. 


Roman Catuouic Mission ScHoo.s 


Roman Catholic missions have enjoyed a longer continuous occupation of Abyssinia 
than any of the other missions. They report a considerable number of schools, 
many of them doubtless small out-schools. Each of the schools in the interior is 
said to contain from 15 to 20 pupils. At Addis Ababa, Harar, Dire Dawa and Sofi, 
there are separate schools for boys and girls, with a special school at Dire Dawa. 
In addition, the Lazarist Fathers report schools for boys and girls at Alitiéna, and for 
boys at Gouala, in Tigré. 


Ecole des Sceurs, Addis Ababa 


This school was founded early in 1905. Two classes are for Kuropean girls of 
various nationalities. There are in all about 50 Abyssinian pupils. About 340 
pupils, European and Abyssinian, have passed through the school. 


Schools of the Alliance Frangaise 


This Society maintains two non-sectarian schools at Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. 
The school in Addis Ababa was founded in 1907 by authorization of Menelik. There 
are about 150 boys and men in regular attendance, 100 being boarders. About 
1,400 pupils have passed through the school. In some cases, parents and children 
have attended the school together. There are no fees, and the pupils are drawn 
from all classes of society. The curriculum includes reading, writing, arithmetic, 
French language and grammar, hygiene, geography, elementary chemistry, physics 
and natural science, drawing, music, history, elementary accounting, geometry, 
algebra and moral instruction. Throughout the school one hour each day is devoted 
to Amharic, though particular importance is attached to the teaching of the French 
Janguage. Most of the pupils enter government service or become interpreters or 
secretaries. 


Lazarist Fathers’ Schools 


The boys’ school at Alitiéna dates back to 1847. The girls’ school at Alitiéna 
and the boys’ school at Gouala were founded in 1898, both in the neighborhood 
of earlier Catholic institutions which had been abandoned owing to persecution. 
In the two boys’ schools there are about 70 pupils, all boarders. There are about 
30 girl boarders at Alitiéna under the direction of Native sisters. Besides religious 
instruction, the girls learn reading, writing and elementary domestic work. No fees 
are charged, and pupils are drawn from all ranks; those at Gouala come mainly 
from the upper classes. The curriculum in the boys’ schools includes history, geo- 
graphy and mathematics. Special importance is attached to religious instruction. 
The Fathers follow the example of the schools of the Abyssinian Church in teaching 
Géez to the pupils; Amharic and French are also taught. The pupils and their 
parents resist all attempts to introduce manual instruction into the curriculum. 


328 KDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


The pupils are apt to migrate to the towns ; some of them have obtained good positions 
in the service of government and in Eritrea ; others pass on to the Ethiopian College 
in Rome. 


SWEDISH PROTESTANT MISSIONS 


The Swedish missionaries of the Evangelical National Society attempted to begin 
work among the Gallas in 1866. They were driven out of the country and were 
not able to establish themselves until after the Italian conquest of Eritrea. Having 
begun work in that Protectorate, they were able gradually to penetrate into Abyssinia, 
establishing a station at Addis Ababa in 1904, The Bibeltrégna Vanner, another 
Swedish society, began work in Eritrea in 1912, extending its operations to Abyssinia 
in 1921. The Evangelical National Society has two stations with 11 out-stations ; 
the Bibeltrégna Vanner has two stations with one out-station. Parts of the Bible 
have been translated into Amharic and into the Tigré and Galla languages, and a 
few books in Géez have been printed for the benefit of educated Abyssinian priests. 
The Evangelical National Society reports a total of eight schools in Abyssinia. In 
three of these schools there are 115 pupils. The Bibeltrégna Vanner reports three 
schools, with 125 pupils. Medical work is carried on at most of the stations. 


Evangelical National Society's School, Addis Ababa 

This school was founded in 1905 on a very small scale, owing to the opposition 
of the Native priests. There are now about 70 boarders, including 10 girls and 
10 to 15 day boys. The boarders pay varying fees, according to the capacity of their 
parents. The curriculum includes religious instruction and church history, Amharic, 
Galla, English, French, history, nature study, arithmetic, geometry, gymnastics 
and singing. A thorough knowledge of their native language is required of the 
pupils before they pass on to a European language. The girls are taught needlework, 
and all the pupils have some experience of the practical work of the station, but no 
crafts are taught to the boys owing to lack of funds and of space. Pupils frequently 
enter government service or become interpreters or clerks with European firms. 
A good many return to their own provinces. It is hoped to start a teacher-training 
department at Addis Ababa later for the Native teachers in the service of the Mission. 


Bibeltrégna Vinner, Addis Ababa 


This Society has a boys’ school and a girls’ school in Addis Ababa founded in 1921 
and 1922. There are 80 boys, of whom about 50 are boarders, and 20 girls, all boarders. 
Most of the pupils are drawn from the middle classes. Those who are able pay for 
their books ; otherwise no fees are charged. All are obliged to take part in any 
work which is required. There is no age limit, and some of the male pupils are 
married. Many of the pupils remain members of the Abyssinian Church, but all 
attend the mission services. In the girls’ school European women teach in Amharic, 
but in the boys’ school Native teachers are generally employed for lessons in that 
language, the Swedish headmaster giving instruction in English and French. Pupils 


ABYSSINIA 329 


who cannot read and write in Amharic when they come to the school have tolearn 
to do so before beginning any other language. It is hoped to inaugurate teacher- 
training, but at present most of the Native teachers have been trained at the Society’s 
school at Amhara. No crafts are taught, except a little carpentry. The curriculum 
in the boys’ school includes Amharic, English, French, Bible reading, theology, 
history, mathematics and geography. The school buildings are good and the class- 
rooms clean and light. 


SEVENTH Day ADVENTISTS’ MIssIon 


The Seventh Day Adventists began work in Eritrea in 1907, penetrating into 
Abyssinia some years later and establishing a station at Addis Ababa. They now 
report two schools—one at Addis Ababa, opened in February, 1923, and the other 
at Addis Alem, opened about a month later. 


Boys’ School, Addis Ababa 


This school contains about 60 pupils of whom 40 are boarders. At present 
they are all boys or young men. Boarders are not allowed to marry while at school. 
The pupils are drawn from all classes of society, those who are able paying all or part 
of the expenses in connection with food and clothing. No fee is charged for tuition. 
The aim of the school is “to give an all-round, thorough elementary education, a 
harmonious development of the physical, mental and spiritual powers.” Though 
evangelization enters largely into the object of the school, none of the pupils, at the 
time of the Commission’s visit, had joined the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. 
The curriculum includes the three R’s, religious instruction, geography, English, 
physiology, hygiene, gymnastics, drawing and singing. Instruction is given in the 
Amharic language. Provision has been made in the estimates for an industrial 
building in which training will be given in woodworking, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, 
carpet weaving, printing and bookbinding. ‘There is at present insufficient space 
for gardening and nursery work, but the Mission hopes to acquire more land for this 
purpose. The European teachers are at present studying Amharic, but interpreters 
still have to be used in most of the classes. 


UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CuuRCH oF NortTH AMERICA 


The United Presbyterian Church of North America owes the beginnings of its 
work in Abyssinia to the influenza epidemic of 1918. At that time a chief living near 
the Sudanese frontier petitioned for medical help to be sent from the Sudan for the 
relief of his subjects. Dr. T. Lambie, of the United Presbyterian Church, responded 
to the call, and ultimately established a station at Sayo, in Western Abyssinia. He 
has recently moved to the capital. 


American Mission School, Sayo 


This school was opened at the Sayo station in 1922, and has 83 pupils, all boys. 
Instruction is given in Galla, the local vernacular, but the intention is to add 


330 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Amharic to the curriculum later. The Mission owns about 200 acres of unusually 
fertile land, and most of the pupils study m the morning and spend the afternoon 
in working upon the farm under trained instructors. It is proposed to open regular 
agricultural classes and also industrial classes. This school would appear to be 
favorably situated for the development of genuine agricultural education. The 
training of medical assistants, too, might be successfully carried on in connection 
with the excellent medical work of the Mission here and in the capital. The present 
school building is small and inadequate, but it is hoped to erect suitable buildings in 
the near future. The Mission aims at making the school self-supporting, apart from 
the salaries of American missionaries and teachers. 


Mission Center, Addis Ababa 


The Mission has recently acquired here an excellent location for its work within 
the limits of Addis Ababa. A well-planned hospital was in process of construction 
at the time of the Commission’s visit. The first building is to cost 50,000 American 
dollars. The Prince Regent has been generous in contributions of land and money 
as well as in other forms of encouragement. Several comfortable mission residences 
have also been built. The plans of the Mission call for a variety of educational and 
religious activities related to the needs of the people. 


British and Foreign Bible Society, Addis Ababa 


The Bible House, which is the center of a growing work for the distribution of 
the Scriptures throughout the country, was also visited by the Commission. It is an 
agency likely to exercise wide influence, not least among the office-holders of the 
Abyssinian Church. A new building is about to be erected in the capital. It is 
probable that the dissemination of the Bible in the languages of the people is 
creating a desire to read throughout the country. The Commission were told that 
there were sold last year 2,800 copies of the Scriptures. 


Ill. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


The facts presented reveal Abyssinia to be a land of striking contrasts. There 
are the barbaric customs of the many and the modern manners of the few; the 
magnificence of the country and the almost complete absence of effective means of 
communications; the oldest forms of Christian ceremonialism and the crudest 
expressions of human service ; possibly the most capable of African people, certainly 
the most highly developed in Native governmental and community organization, 
but among the most backward of all Africa in the benefits of sanitation and hygiene, 
almost entirely lacking in the advantages of school systems, strikingly barren of the 
necessities and conveniences of the civilized home, and remarkably separated from 
the stimulations and profits of international exchange. 

The elimination of these strange and interesting contrasts is a prodigious task. 
The element of time will be necessary. There must be patience, faith and wisdom on 


ABYSSINIA 831 


the part of the guardians of the Empire as well as on the part of those who would 
help. Nowhere is there greater need for the ‘‘ cooperative mind” described at 
length in the chapter on that subject. There is need for the “‘ charitable mind,” so 
vividly described by St. Paul, as the mind that “‘ hopeth all things, believeth all 
things, endureth all things.” Only such an attitude can win the confidence of the 
Abyssinians after the centuries of anxious struggle to maintain control of their 
Native land. The legitimate ground for their suspicions is well described in the 
following words : 


The Abyssinians are known to be exceedingly patriotic, proud and suspicious. Their rough 
Alpine country, their fierce fight for independence through centuries, have fostered the nationalistic 
spirit. Their experience of contact with nations of superior military resources has not been en- 
encouraging. Wor instance, assistance given by Portugal was followed by the introduction of 
Portuguese missions, whose interference in politics has left ineffaceable marks and a deep aversion 
to missions, deepened by the experiences of the sixties of last century. The Egyptian invasion, 
the Italian appropriation of Northern Abyssinia, are not forgotten. 


In view of such well-founded suspicions, it is obvious that foreigners who approach 
the people should give evidence of sincere interest in Abyssinia. The beginnings should 
be small but genuine and directly related to the needs of Abyssinian communities. 
Indeed, the method of small beginnings is usually the best. Certainly the most 
effective educational movements in America have been started most modestly, 
though funds were available for launching on a large scale. The notable illustration 
of this method is the ‘‘ Farm Demonstration Movement,” initiated by the Rockefeller 
General Education Board in the simplest manner and gradually extending into one of 
the most powerful educational influences in America, The “ visiting teachers ”’ 
method now being adopted in British Colonies originated with one teacher and a 
few schools in an American county. Through the educational statesmanship and 
patience of Dr. Dillard, who visited Abyssinia as a member of the Education Com- 
mission, the ‘‘ visiting teachers ’’ have become most important educational influences 
in America. It is believed that the hope of Abyssinia, too, is to be found in small 
beginnings, initiated by the “‘ friendly mind ” that discovers the good and the useful 
wherever they exist. 


ELEMENTS OF HOPE 


What, then, are the elements of hope in Abyssinia? Great differences of opinion 
exist as to the agencies that are worth while and permanent and helpful. The 
following elements seem worthy of presentation to Abyssinians and others who see 
the opportunity and the responsibility to help Abyssinia to participate in the benefits 
and burdens of civilization : 


(1) The Government of Ras Tafari 

Among the first elements of hope for the sound and effective education of the 
Abyssinian people is the educational interest represented by Ras Tafari. Whether 
he lives and rules a long or short time, the kind of interest he has in the education 


332 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


and in the general development of the people is essential to any educational plan 
for Abyssinia. The Prince is a comparatively young man of refined manners, with 
considerable understanding of the elements of education and civilization. The 
evidence of his belief in education is definite and real. He has sent young Abyssinians 
to Europe and America at his own expense. He is sincerely friendly to the educational 
activities of missions of all Churches and has contributed a thousand dollars to each 
of the four missions. He has financed the erection of an educational institution 
of substantial size with ample grounds practically adjoining his palace, and he is 
now planning to employ European teachers in this school. All these interests and 
activities indicate that he realizes that he must have officials who are both loyal 
to him and acquainted with the best in European and American life. 

The point of view of the Prince Regent is vividly reflected in the following address 
to the missionaries of Addis Ababa at a dinner which he gave in their honor at his 
palace in November, 1923 : 


It is with great pleasure that I express my thanks to you for having accepted the invitation to 
come here on this occasion, Not alone on my behalf have I invited you to come to-night, you men 
who have come from the remotest countries of Sweden and America, but on behalf of her whom you 
have come to serve with such a spirit of self-denial ; it is Ethiopia which in my person presents to 
you her most profound gratitude. I, therefore, thank you on behalf of Ethiopia for having the 
desire to spread knowledge here. 

It is historically proved that Ethiopia, our country which lies at one extreme end of Africa, has 
had its own government for many ages. Ever since the time she embraced Christianity in the third 
century up to recent times, she was engaged in bloody conflicts against Moslems and heathen in order 
to defend her Christianity. The enemies, however, failed to subject her and force her to deny her 
religion. On account of these facts, Ethiopia could not advance her power. 

You honorable educators, who give instruction and direct the minds of the young people, 
however, are accomplishing this noble work. You are not teaching them solely how to read and 
write, how to calculate, but are also instructing them to be good servants of their country and 
to consider such service among sacred things. You teach them that the cause of the deplorable 
evils that afflict humanity in this world is selfishness. You teach them that what brings honor 
and greatness to human beings is justice and helping of each other. You have fulfilled the principle 
of helping others and renouncing self-love. You have taken as the basis of your work the words of 
the Gospel, ‘‘ The man who gave to the poor loaned to God.” You, without expecting any recom- 
pense here, are accomplishing a great service. I must thank in a special way Dr. Lambie who, 
obeying an inner calling, has left the great country of America, crossing oceans to bring to Ethiopia 
his worthy Christian beneficial work and to serve humanity by taking care of the public health. 


(2) The Country, the People, and the Abyssinian Church 


As a basis for the educational future of Abyssinia, the most fundamental of all 
elements must be the people and the country. Facts already presented reveal the 
beauty and resources of the country as unsurpassed in all Africa. According to 
Dr. Shantz, 139,000 square miles of land have climatic and soil conditions that 
make possible agriculture similar to that of the temperate zone. This is almost 
half of that type of country in East Africa north of the Transvaal. The people are 
the equal, and possibly the superior, of all the Native peoples of Africa. The ruling 
classes, largely of Semitic origin, are estimated to constitute a third of the population. 


ABYSSINIA 333 


All testimony seems to agree that there is an increasing desire for education throughout 
the Empire. Certainly the Education Commission received almost pathetic appeals 
for educational opportunities from numerous individuals and some groups in Addis 
Ababa. The following statement made by a reliable American, who has a wide 
acquaintance with Abyssinia, is significant : 

I have never met an Abyssinian who was not convinced of the benefits to be derived from educa- 
tion. That this desire for education permeates all classes may be gathered from a remark made by an 
old Mohammedan Galla of Sayo near the Sudan border: ‘“ Take my boys and teach them ; if they 
learn Christianity, never mind so that they learn ; as for me I am too old to change.” I think it no 
exaggeration to say that if any sort of a poor excuse for a school were put down in any obscure 
hamlet in Abyssinia without recommendation of any kind, it would in less than no time attract a 
multitude of children, very ragged and dirty as to body, but almost without exception possessing 
minds avid for knowledge to a degree that is little short of remarkable. That this condition exists 
augurs well forthe future. Here is not the dense black paganism of the White Nile or the fanatic 
Mohammedanism of the Blue Nile or Somaliland, but a people eager to learn, 

The Abyssinian Church is included with the country and the people because 
it seems so thoroughly interwoven with their life and because there appear to be 
elements of influence and organization in the Church that may contribute to the 
educational development of Abyssinia. The Christian origin of the Church has 
been noted and reference made to its maintenance of little church schools which teach 
religious ceremony and the alphabet of Géez, the ecclesiastical language, an ancient 
Ethiopic tongue, unknown to the people and only slightly known to the majority 
of the priests. The alphabetic characters are, however, identical with those of 
Amharic, the prevailing language, and the little schools are to that extent helpful. 

Reports describe the Church as exceedingly conservative and even reactionary. 
Evidence indicates a degree of intolerance that equals that of European Churches 
in the past. It is said that a Governor of a western province closed a flourishing 
American mission in 1923 on the alleged order of the Patriarch of the Church and that 
two mission teachers and their pupils were kept in chains for many days. In keeping 
with the same intolerant spirit, orders were given, during the absence of the Prince 
Regent in Europe, forbidding the burial of a devoted and learned Swedish missionary 
in the Christian cemetery, thus subjecting Christian missionaries to the deepest 
humiliation known to the Abyssinian Church. 

It is to be hoped that the Patriarch, who is said to be a man of ability, and the 
leaders of the Church may realize the advantages of toleration and even of friendly 
cooperation with other Churches. An American missionary has recently expressed 
the sincere wish of all sensible European and American missionaries that the venerable 
Patriarch could understand their desire to assist the Abyssinian Church in the great 
task of educating the laity in Christian ideals that are in conformity with its own 
peculiar conditions. Such cooperation would undoubtedly add greatly to the 
strength of the Abyssinian Church and guarantee to Abyssinia a degree of progress 
that would place it among the important countries of Africa. 

There are some indications, however, that there are liberal influences in the 
Church. A large school is now being erected in Addis Ababa by the Church. The 

M2 


334 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


children of many deacons are being educated in foreign mission schools. It seems 
certain that the influence of Ras Tafari and the demand of the young people of 
Abyssinia willin the course of time vitally influence the educational policy of the 
Abyssinian Church. With full recognition of the potential resources and people and 
even the possibilities of the Abyssinian Church, the most direct and vital present 
element of hope for development is the very genuine, active and almost insistent desire 
for education on the part of an increasing number of young people in Abyssinia. 


(3) Health and Agricultural Education 

These are the two most important practical phases of education required in 
Abyssinia. The effective use of the soil is the best guarantee of the wealth required 
for the maintenance and development of the Empire. The health of the people is 
fundamental to national welfare. Reference to the discussion of the two educational 
objectives in the second chapter, as well as to Dr.Shantz’s presentation of agriculture, 
shows the essential value of these activities, as well as the methods to attain them. 
It is sincerely hoped that the International Education Board of America may agree 
to cooperate in establishing the farm demonstration plan, so successful in America, 
and that the Rockefeller Health Foundation may contribute of its wealth of experi- 
ence as well as of resources in extending the benefits of sanitation to the great inland 
Empire. 

Fortunately for Abyssinia there are two beginnings in these directions that give 
promise of real achievement. The beginning as regards health is in the presence 
of Dr. Lambie of the United Presbyterian Mission in Addis Ababa and the erection of 
a well-planned and substantial hospital of fifty beds by that Mission with the aid 
and patronage of Ras Tafari. From this beginning there may be developed, not only 
a hospital service, but also a system of hygiene and sanitation for Addis Ababa and 
ultimately for the Empire. Dr. Lambie is held in high regard by the Ras. The 
unusual confidence reposed in Dr. Lambie is a real basis of hope, not only for health 
improvement, but also for general education. 

As regards agricultural development and education, one basis of hope is the 
farm operations already initiated by Colonel D. A. Sandford on well selected land 
about thirty miles from Addis Ababa. His education, experience and personality 
are well suited to service in Abyssinia. As Colonial Officer in the Sudan he won 
the confidence and gratitude of the Natives by his fair and sympathetic dealings, 
and as a member of the British Legation in Abyssinia he had ample opportunity of 
understanding the possibilities and problems of the country as regards both internal 
and international situations. 

In partnership with Ras Tafari—a fact possibly more significant than all others 
as an evidence of Abyssinian confidence—Colonel Sandford has obtained land and 
organized farm operations. The value of his farm as a basis for the initiation of 
agricultural education will depend on whether the agricultural operations are on 
such a large scale as to be of no educational value to the small farmer. Large scale 
operations may be of value to Abyssinia as a whole, but the agricultural education 


ABYSSINIA 335 


of the small farmer requires special provisions adapted to his needs. Will Colonel 
Sandford cooperate in providing the necessary adaptations to small farm operations ? 
His request for assistance in the organization of a farm school is a favorable indication. 
His interest in the Native people is another indication to the same end. 

The interest of the small farmer could easily be guaranteed by special provisions 
in the arrangements for the school. Among such provisions the following may be 
suggested : 


(1) That the directorship of the school should include Dr. Lambie or some representative of 
missionary work. 

(2) That the agricultural teacher should be known to be interested in small farm operations. 

(8) That the school program and activities should provide di rectly for rural life and small farmers. 

(4) That the agriculturist should have a degree from a recognized school of agriculture and 
practical experience in agriculture either as a farmer or a research man, so that he may be able to 
evaluate and properly weigh theories bearing on agricultural practice. He should also have the 
attitude of the investigator as well as that of the demonstrator ; for in this case he must learn before 


he can safely teach. His interest should be primarily in Native agriculture and the welfare of the 
small farmer, 


(4) Missionary Activities 

Even though mission schools are at present almost negligible in number and 
limited very largely to Addis Ababa and a few towns, they represent an international 
interest in Abyssinia that is sincerely devoted to the welfare of the country and the 
people. Whatever mistakes they have made in Abyssinia or elsewhere, they are 
recognized by all discerning students as the main supporters of education. Govern- 
ments are realizing more and more that the contribution of missions is exceedingly 
valuable in the training of the people for effective services along all lines. Their 
mistakes in the past are being rapidly eliminated. They are devoting their energies 
increasingly to the practical needs of the people as regards health, agriculture, in- 
dustry, homes and character. 

Probably the most certain basis of hope for education in Abyssinia are the activities 
of missionary societies. These societies at the present time are the United Presby- 
terian Church of America, with a large hospital in process of erection at Addis Ababa 
and a mission station or two on the western boundary ; a station of the Swedish 
Church Mission in Addis Ababa, with an older work in another section of Abyssinia 
but now temporarily given up; another Swedish Mission, with work begun about 
two years ago in Addis Ababa ; a Seventh Day Adventist Mission, with buildings and 
work begun in Addis Ababa within the last year. In addition, there are Roman 
Catholic missions in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Harar and a few other places. These 
Roman Catholic missions have been in Abyssinia for many years. Probably their 
most notable achievement has been the instruction of prominent Abyssinians, including 
Ras Tafari, in French as well as in some of the phases of a general education. Nor 
must the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society be omitted. 

In estimating the value of these missions to Abyssinia, and especially in determining 


336 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the extent and quality of their educational influence, it is necessary to have in mind 
the following facts : 

First, that all the missions represent a supporting public in Europe and America whose religious 
belief in their missions guarantees the maintenance of the work in Abyssinia with money and 
personnel, independently of the varying internal conditions of the country. 

Second, that educationally each mission will in the course of time doubtless bring to 
Abyssinia the elements of education which exist in the home country. The Swedish missionaries 
will bring their mechanical skill, their sense of order, their gardening, their housekeeping methods. 
The United Presbyterians and the Adventists represent the interest of Middle West American States 
in relating education to the common activities of community life. Among these are health, agri- 
culture and gardening, housekeeping, simple mechanical activities, and a genuine regard for the 
dignity of handwork. The Roman Catholic Fathers bring their religious ceremonialism and mis- 
sionary devotion to service ; the Brothers bring their knowledge of plant and animal life and their 
skill in mechanics. 

Third, that the small missions now in Abyssinia will not only become larger and multiply in 
number, but that they will respond with other missions to the movements and influences that 
make for effectiveness in the essentials of life. 


(5) The League of Nations and Foreign Legations 


The membership of Abyssinia in the League of Nations has many possibilities for 
good to the Empire. This participation in international affairs may be the means of 
stimulating and guiding the Government into vital internal improvement in health 
and sanitation, sound economic undertakings, effective agriculture, modern methods 
of administration and judicial practice, and education both for the masses and for 
the leaders in activities related to the welfare of all. It will also tend to check the 
existence of slavery whichstill appears to persist. Through the friendly cooperation of 
the League and the Foreign Legations it is hoped that the Government may extend its 
influence and authority so as to eliminate the possibility of disrupting revolutions 
within the Empire, and avoid disagreeable and dangerous misunderstandings of 
international character. 


EDUCATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS 


It now remains to formulate recommendations for the organization of educational 
activities in Abyssinia. The provisions should have clearly in mind both the training 
of the masses and the education of the leaders. The ultimate security and progress 
of Abyssinia require that all the people shall be educated in the simple essentials of 
community life described at length in the chapter on Objectives and Adaptations. 
Effective administration of education must plan, first, a system with a gradation of 
schools from the lowest to the highest, and second, supervision for the encouragement 
and direction of teachers and schools in every part of the Empire. The following 
recommendations are offered for the consideration of the Abyssinian Government and 
all who are directly or indirectly responsible for education : 


(1) An Advisory Committee on Education.—Possibly the first step in providing an 
educational system should be the appointment by Government of an Advisory Com- 
mittee on Education, to be composed of representatives of Government, the Abyssinian 


ABYSSINIA 337 


Church, Protestant and Roman Catholic missions, and commercial organizations. 
Such a committee has been appointed in practically every British colony. 


(2) Financial Support of Schools.—With the help of the Advisory Committee, 
Government should determine the amount of money available for education and the 
methods of disbursing the appropriations to existing schools and others to be organized. 


(3) Curriculum.—The subjects taught should be based upon the principle of adap- 
tation to the needs of the pupils and the people. The ability to read and write is only 
the beginning of education. Health, use of economic resources, including agriculture 
and handicraft, the decencies of home life, healthful recreations and, above all, 
sound character, are the basic objectives. In the higher schools there should be 
science, history, literature, and technical skill. The special emphasis on agriculture 
and health has been presented in the paragraphs on the Elements of Hope. 


(4) Organization.—The school system recommended is described in the chapter on 


School Administration. The following quotation suggests many elements especially 
related to Abyssinia : 


First, there is a great need for village schools in the hundreds of villages and i housands of hamlets, 
schools of a simple nature taught by Abyssinians themselves. The teachers would be trained in 
Addis Ababa and receive some government support as well as fees from the children, paid in produce 
of the country. Second, larger schools in the bigger places as Harar, Gondar, Gore, Nekempti, 
Gimbi, ete., selective and advanced, teaching trades and agriculture, the staff being largely 
Abyssinian, but with a missionary or white teacher to supervise. There should be boarding schools 
drawing pupils from a radius of 50 or 100 miles. There should be a farm in connection with each 
where principles can be put into practice. From such centers selected pupils should be sent to 
Addis Ababa, where the most advanced work would be provided for men and women in a college or 
colleges with professional schools. 

Schools, at least the more advanced ones, would have to be selective in character, as otherwise 
they would be unwieldy, owing to the very great demand. This selection should be largely competi- 
tive, but also, since feudal conditions prevail in Abyssinia and will so prevail for many years, some 
special attention should be paid to the children of feudal lords and chieftains with a view to fitting 
them to rule justly for the benefit of their subjects. A school to teach statecraft, paying especial 
attention to history and international law as well as common law, would be of value. 


(5) Supervision of Schools.—The necessity for rapid multiplication of small schools 
in many villages will require special provision for supervision. Reference has 
already been made to the plan of employing “ visiting teachers ” to assist the village 
teachers of limited training to improve their work and to relate their school to the 
simple community needs. 


(6) Training of Leaders.—¥or the present teachers and leaders must be accepted 
from existing schools. As the lower schools advance, more comprehensive programs 
of school training will be necessary. Abyssinian leadership will need two phases of 
education, namely, (a) knowledge required for political leadership, and (b) knowledge 
required to teach the masses the simple essentials of community life, including health, 
effective use of economic resources, sound family organization, and healthful 
recreations. 


The subjects of instruction for political leadership include European languages, 


338 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


probably French and English ; political science, that is, the theory and practice of 
government as presented in such a book as Bryce’s American Commonwealth ; com- 
merce and economics ; and international law. 

The school curriculum for mass leadership should include physiology and hygiene ; 
physical sciences such as agriculture, chemistry, physics and biology; social 
studies, including discussions of the family, the home and housing, transportation and 
roads, money, banking and thrift, land tenure, recreations, Native plays and Native 
music; history and literature, including special emphasis on Native history; the 
usual school subjects, such as arithmetic, reading and writing; school practice in 
gardening and handwork in such materials as wood, iron and leather for young men, 
and in housework for young women; games and other recreations for both young 
men and young women. A central place should be given to religious instruction. 

The Ras’s new school could doubtless incorporate these elements of education for 
leadership, provided a capable staff of teachers is secured. There must, of course, be 
provision for the education of Native doctors, ministers, lawyers, engineers and other 
members of the récognized professions. Such training must ultimately be provided 
in Abyssinia. In the meantime, Abyssinian students desiring to enter the professions 
must probably proceed to Europe or America. 


CHAPTER XVI 
j 
THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 


I: does not need to be stated in the last chapter of such a Report as this that 
education up to the limit of expanding capacity is the inalienable right of the 
African woman as much as of the African man. The discussions of educational 
objectives and adaptations, of supervision and of administration, bear with equal 
directness on the education of women and of men. In the geographical chapters 
and in the Recommendations of the Commission, women’s education has had promi- 
nence. The problem of education is not two but one. Yet, in view of the evidences 
of indifference in many quarters, the inadequate provision of school opportunities 
for Native girls and women, and the lack of adaptation to their special needs, it has 
seemed necessary to isolate this question for separate treatment in the Report.* 


Tue IMPORTANCE OF THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN 


The approach to any convincing consideration of the subject must be made, to 
begin with, from the level of those primitive conditions in which the life of African 
women is cast. The most dramatic appeal for the effective education of primitive 
Native women is in the appallingly high death rate of infants. Civilized people 
are only beginning to realize the tremendous significance of the death rate that 
ranges from one-third to three-fourths of the total number of infants born. While 
there are many causes that combine to bring about this most tragic result, it is probable 
that the ignorance of the women is one of the most important factors. Certainly 
a better knowledge on the part of the women would do much to reduce the terrible 
loss of human life at its beginning. Not only is this fact staggering in its economic 
consequences in a continent where labor is of vital importance, but in the mass of 
human suffering and waste which it lays bare. ‘‘ Here,” as Mrs. Vischer writes, 
‘‘ we have a clear issue, meeting a demand coming straight from the African woman’s 
heart.”’ 

In conditions of primitive life in Africa it is necessary to emphasize those 
things which are immediate and real. Simple as they appear to be, the responsibilities 
of women require the most serious and thoughtful consideration by all concerned 
with the welfare of Native life. 

The first responsibility of the woman is for the supply and preparation of food. 
Primitive society imposes this upon the Native woman to an extent that can hardly 


* Acknowledgment must be made of the help given in the preparation of this chapter by Mrs. 
Vischer. During the period when she accompanied her husband with the Commission in East 
Africa, Mrs. Vischer was able to gather from women missionaries and others materials of great value 
which she incorporated in a memorandum for the purposes of this Report, A noteworthy contribution 
was made in a statement by Mrs. Handley Hooper, of which use has been already made in the Kenya 


chapter. 
339 


340 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


be appreciated by members of civilized communities. The woman is not only the 
cook who prepares the food for consumption, she is also the gardener and the field 
worker who cultivates the soil. On her the family depends for its supplies. 

Her second responsibility is for the habitation. While the man shares in the 
building of the house, it is the woman who first of all has care of its decencies and 
comforts, guaranteeing proper facilities for refreshing sleep. In the earlier stages of 
social development it is her lot, as one wife among many, to care for her own children 
in her separate kraal; as civilization advances she can aid her husband to escape 
from the evils of a one-room dwelling to a home where she can supply ideals for the 
better relationship of children as well as of adults. 

Closely connected with that of food and sleeping facilities is the whole question 
of clothing. This important provision cannot be left either to the antiquarian 
interest of those who desire to retain what they regard as the artistic and natural 
in clothing, or to the persistent interest of those who would impose upon the Africans 
a Kuropeanized dress entirely unsuited to the demands of climate or Native habit. 
In clothing, as in every phase of primitive life, there is a middle ground which 
conserves the best of their original costumes and supplies the best of civilized 
experience. 

These three elemental necessities of human life, the most concrete expression 
of the responsibilities of women, would alone offer sufficient ground for the large 
expenditure of funds and the larger expenditure of thought and real concern for 
the well-being of Native girls and Native women. They are not, however, complete, 
for the woman not only presides in the dwelling, directs or controls the beginnings of 
life, but also holds the vital forces that make or unmake the individual and the 
social group. 

Woman’s responsibilities in the recreative needs of primitive society illustrate 
the extensive and potent set of influences with which she is connected. The place 
of recreation in African life has been already recognized and the importance of 
conserving the worthy elements in Native amusements has been emphasized. The 
rougher recreations of primitive society are divided into those related to hunting 
and warfare and to moonlight dances. The elimination of the excesses of these 
will probably depend more largely upon the education of the woman than upon the 
training of the man. It is certain that the African people cannot attain even to 
the normal standards of civilization without radical improvement in sex relationships. 
Miss Mabel Shaw’s statements quoted in a later section of this chapter show what 
part a school may play in purifying and directing these and similar activities. Equally 
important is the woman’s control of the recreations of the children. Here her 
influence can be potent even to the extent of determining character formation. 
Readers will recall the part played by the elder women in Dr. Donald Fraser’s lovely 
story of camp fire games, quoted in an earlier chapter. 

The relation of these elemental duties of women in primitive society to the 
‘simples ”’ of education set forth in the preceding chapters must be evident to every 
reader. To meet the African girl or woman at her starting point in the social order 


PLATE XXXIX 





GIRLS AT SCHOOL (1) 
(a) and (b) The Girls’ School, Nabumale, Uganda ; (c) The Waddilove Institute, 
Nengubo, Southern Rhodesia, 


PLATE XL 





GIRLS AT SCHOOL (2) 
Mbereshi 
(a) Girls Marching ; (6) At Net Ball ; (ec) Dormitories and Playground, 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 341 


is the only way to lead her, without social disruption and personal disaster, into 
fuller partnership in the new life opening before African peoples. 

Experienced missionaries call attention to the heavy strain which advance in 
civilization adds to the personal and household life of a woman. Monogamy greatly 
increases her duties as wife and deprives her of fellow-workers in field and garden. 
A larger dwelling, additional clothing (involving sewing, washing and mending), 
better food and higher standards of moral training for children, all add to the woman’s 
privilege, but also to her responsible work. It may be expected that social adjust- 
ments whereby some of her tasks will be transferred to the men of the household will 
evolve naturally, if a right attitude is created through education related to actual 
home and community needs. A noteworthy suggestion is made by Dr. Shantz 
in his section on Woman’s Place in Native Agriculture to the effect that even if 
women still till the food crops the newly introduced money crops might be 
regarded as in the sphere of the men. Here, as elsewhere, adjustment of social 
changes can only be made where the concerns of men and women, of home and 
school, of the individual and the community, are seen as one. 

The Report has repeatedly urged the need of preparing the African for leadership 
of the masses and for participation in the widening opportunities of modern life. 
This applies as really to women as to men. Tragic results will follow if the education 
of the African woman does not develop on parallel lines and simultaneously with 
that of her husband. Together they must advance to the full development of civilized 
life in all its phases. The influence of ignorant and uncivilized wives and mothers 
upon semi-educated men and boys can do nothing but hamper and delay the develop- 
ment of civilization. The testimony of authorities consulted by Mrs. Vischer points 
in this direction. In the words of a prominent Roman Catholic missionary leader : 

Education of the Native woman in our African territories must be based upon her future 
position and upon the influence which she will have to exercise. Now the black woman, not less 


than her sister the white woman, is called upon to become the soul of a clean and healthful home. 


It is her vocation. . . . It is therefore necessary to educate her, to educate her intelligence, her 
heart and her will power. 


Even more emphatic is the testimony of a woman missionary doing notable work 
in Kenya Colony : 


A real national ideal must be set up in all education, and a pride of race given which must have 
practical results in the cleansing of Native life. This can only be achieved if the men and women 
are taught to work together, with a real consideration for one another, and wish and seek for their 
children something better than that which they have obtained for themselves. 


The essential needs of the situation are pithily summed up in Mrs. Vischer’s own 
words, that ‘changed men will require changed mates.’’ As sound education 
penetrates the mass of African life, higher conceptions, of home and family life will 
make increasing claims upon men and women. The training of children will become 
a wider parental trust, the relationship of husband and wife will expand from physical 
into mental and spiritual regions; comradeship will replace mere subserviency. 
For all this every school, from the least to the greatest, prepares the way. 


342 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


No survey of the importance of women’s education, even among the primitive 
communities of Africa, would be complete without some reference to the need for 
rudimentary professional training. The two professions most likely to open before 
the African woman in the near future are those of teaching and nursing. Women 
teachers are needed in schools for girls and for infants of both sexes. Though the 
influence and supervision of European women are essential to the successful education 
of African girls, the Native woman teacher has from the first her place—a place that 
will grow in importance and influence as civilization progresses. 

The demand for such teachers already exceeds the supply in certain Colonies, 
as witness the testimony of a woman missionary in Nyasaland : 

We are so short of women teachers that almost any girl of good character who knows how to 
read and write can get work, if her home is not actually near a central station where more trained 
teachers are available. 


If these Native women teachers are to fulfil their function satisfactorily, due 
provision for their training must be made. Repeated reference to this urgent need 
has been made in earlier chapters. 

The woman nurse, too, will be increasingly needed, especially for maternity 
work and the care of sick children and in hospital wards. At present a tendency 
is reported in some districts for men rather than women to come forward to train as 
nurses and medical assistants, even when the instruction is given by European 
women. The proportion of women, however, is sure to increase as time goes on, 
and due provision must be made for adequate training. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF GoopD WorkK 


The Commissions both to West and East Africa noted with regret the neglect of 
adequate provision for the education of women and girls. They were also impressed 
with its lack of adaptation both to the present needs of African girls and also to those 
larger possibilities opening before them. As against this general and lamentable 
neglect both Commissions bear testimony to the excellent quality of the work done 
in some schools organized by European and American missions. The credit for this 
success must usually be given to women missionaries who are conscious of the capaci- 
ties of the African woman to participate more fully in the molding both of present 
and future conditions of African life. 

The Report of the two Commissions’ provides several examples of schools effec- 
tively related to the special needs of the Native homes and the responsibilities of 
women in the community. A few of these examples may be recalled: 

(1) In one mission school Native girls are being trained to share in every phase of home and 
community life. Being originally, designed to care for twins cast out in accordance with a cruel 
superstition, the school has had charge of a number of children from infancy up. This gives oppor- 
tunity for experience, A notable feature of the school is the beauty of the sleeping arrangements, 
The huts, of dark brown clay, susceptible of polish, are made artistic without any semblance of cheap 


imitation of European rooms. ‘This typifies the whole attitude of the school, in that the best possible 
use is made of the worthy elements of Native life. The animal garden contained the various domestic 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 343 


animals of the country. The care of these animals was assigned to the children according to age 
and intelligence. The purpose was far more inclusive than mere interest in economic values. 
Through their varied responsibilities the children were taught habits of promptness, regularity, 
faithfulness and obedience in the tasks assigned to them. They were also interested in the simple 
realities of the normal life of the community, instead of being restricted to the mere learning of 
words from a printed page. 

Another feature of this school was the training for girls about to be married, most of whom had 
been sent to the school by their future husbands, These young women lived in a separate compound 
and responsibility for its all-round life was placed quite definitely upon them. This included the 
preparation of food, the making and care of clothing, the cleanliness and order of their sleeping 
accommodation, vegetable and flower gardening, recreations both outdoor and in the evening hours 
within their quarters, the religious life of the compound, and all the influences that make for the full- 
orbed womanhood toward which the schoo! activities directed them. Education in the narrower 
sense was given a real and proportionate place in the program, but the future duties of the young 
women as the prospective wives of men who were to be ministers, teachers and community workers 
determined the method and policies of the department. 

(2) Another well-known school, in addition to the regular instruction and practice in home life, 
provided special training in marketing. An older and a younger girl were sent each day to purchase 
food for the school, with responsibility for the wise expenditure of the money, having in mind not 
only the cost of the article but its food value. In this simple experience there was a test of honesty, 
judgment, business management and such other qualities as promptness, regularity and faithfulness. 

(3) Still another instance illustrates possibilities of educating young women in the care of children. 
This institution was designed for the preparation of maternity nurses. Even though their preliminary 
education was quite limited, the success of the institution was surprising. With simple illustrations 
and carefully directed practice the young women acquired a knowledge and a skill that enabled them 
to be of great service to the Native women of the community in which they worked. 

A few miles from this institution was another school for the more general education of Native 
girls, This was remarkably successful both in imparting general knowledge of the more conven- 
tionalized type and knowledge and practice of home activities such as sewing, cooking and the care 
of the gardens. Provision was also made for recreation both through outdoor sports and indoor 
games. ‘Ihe one defect in the institution was the failure to give to the pupils an understanding of 
the special responsibilities of motherhood. This failure was all the more obvious in that the maternity 
training center was situated only a few miles away. 

(4) Illustrations of the direct preparation of African women for the larger and more defined 
ervices are not so definite as those already given. Such training is usually, on its technical side, 
nerged in that for men. Missionaries are increasingly conscious of the need for fuller and more 
advanced provision for the training of women as teachers, evangelists, social workers and nurses. 
The lack of higher standards of training for women at the present time is largely explained by the 
failure in the past to supply stimulative education in the lower standards. But chapter after 
chapter in this Report demonstrates that the provision of at least some measure of this higher 
education can no longer be delayed. In particular, it is imperative that facilities for the training of 
women teachers be increased. 


' Among other material from Africa, the Commission received from Dr. C. T. 
Loram a statement setting forth the ideals and practice of a girls’ school in Northern 
Rhodesia, which he commended as noteworthy and suggestive. So simple and so 
inclusive is the statement that it seems to be the expression in action of all that this 
chapter contains. The writer* permits the publication of this statement here : 


* Miss Mabel Shaw, of the Girls’ School, Mbereshi, a station of the London Missionary Society in 
Northern Rhodesia. 


344 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Here we have a large compound, containing ten small one-roomed houses of sun-dried bricks, 
also stores, a block of burnt brick comprising a large schoolroom, classrooms, kitchen and store : 
also a missionary’s house. In reality it is a small village run entirely by girls. In the midst of the 
compound is the ordinary village nsaka, a circular grass roof supported on poles, such as is seen 
in all our villages here, It is the general meeting place or town hall; the girls also use it for a dining- 
room in wet weather. In the dry season they eat outside, seated on mats round the common pot, 
just as they do in their villages. At the head of each house is a house mother, a big girl. She has 
in her care eight children of varying ages, and she is responsible for their general well-being and 
behavior. In this way the ten eldest girls in the school have training in the care and disciplining of 
children. They look after them in sickness and prepare special food for them ; they wash and mend 
their clothes ; they give to each child her own particular duty and shoulder the whole responsibility 
of the house. Many of them do it amazingly well. These house mothers are the elders of the 
village, and often settle any dispute that may arise. They work together exceliently, and are really 
concerned about the well-being of the children and that of the school as a whole. 

We work largely through these house mothers. They are in close and constant touch with us, 
working with us for the good of the school. Often they hold this position for two years or more 
before leaving. Our endeavor is to instil into them a sense of mission, the serving of others. It is 
to girls trained in our schools that we look largely for the salvation of the African village—spiritually, 
mentally, morally. 

The girls live as nearly as possible an ordinary village life. The work of the whole compound 
is done by them ; they draw their own water, get their own firewood, prepare their own food. We 
have two very extensive gardens in which a considerable amount of time is spent. We grow a great 
quantity of cassava, the staple food of this people. In time we hope to grow enough for all our 
needs, also enough green food, nuts and beans. A considerable amount of flour pounding is done ; 
each girl takes her turn at this. Garden work is developing rapidly. In future we shall have a 
large fruit garden—bananas, pawpaws, mangoes and other fruits. All the work except the actual 
digging is done by the girls. A certain amount of time is given to pot-making, and before long we 
hope to be doing really useful work in this department. All the girls from the oldest to the youngest 
make their own garments. 

School hours are from 9 to 12.80 daily. The curriculum is based upon the Nyasaland Code. I 
am not eager to take the girls beyond Standard III. At present we have one unusually intelligent 
girl in Standard V, who will be a teacher, we hope. Organized games, singing, drill and dancing are 
great features. There are also games and dances in the moonlight several nights every month. 
Net ball is played remarkably well, with great vigor and keenness. 


I have found that the secret of the happy, contented school is to keep the girls healthily employed. 
The younger children go to bed just after sunset, the elder ones a little later. Sleep comes at once. 


So far, we have had no trouble of any kind in the houses. There is absolute silence until the rising 
bell rings before dawn. 


The more definitely religious exercises consist of prayers at sunrise and sunset; religious 
instruction is given in school every day, and in Sunday School, where the house mothers are teachers. 
They have a preparation class every week. Our school life centers in a little devotional and inter- 
cessory service held weekly for the elder girls in the school and the old girls in the village. In this way 
we keep in close touch with the old girls, all of whom are married. 

The children come to us quite young. Most of them are the children of Christian parents and 
they stay until they are married. In this district girls are married as soon as they are mature. In 
the school they are not married until at least two years afterwards. At this present time we have 
girls of seventeen and eighteen with us, girls who have been in the school for seven or eight years. 

We make use of the dramatic sense which these girls have in common with all their people. 
Where we can dramatize we do so, even in our religious teaching. ‘The chief example of this is 
in scenes, historical and symbolic, representing the birth of our Lord. hese are done year by year 
at Christmas time, not only as an act of worship and adoration for the girls who take part, but for 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 345 


the vast number of people who come to see them. In all the rehearsing and preparation beforehand 
there is a sense of reality and reverence which is quite amazing. We make use of this gift of theirs 
in many other ways. 

There are no quick results in the school, though one sees clearly the growth in responsibility, 
cleanliness, intelligence, self-control and thought for others. The test of the school work is to be 
looked for in the lives of the old girls. ‘There are only about twenty at present, and all of these 
have left fairly recently—within a year or two—so it is not yet possible to judge. But one sees 
clean houses, healthy, clean, well-cared for babies, and a desire to keep in touch with the school 
and to share its life wherever possible. 

Occasionally one gets a gleam of new life stirring in the hearts of some, and such gleams, however 
transient, make one feel that it is all worth years of toil and patient waiting. There is one thing 
these children are most certainly learning, and that is joy—joy unshadowed by fear ; and in so far 
as God Himself is joy, they are receiving Him. 

It seems to me that the only way to set about such work is to begin where the girls are. Their 
village life is the best they have known, and it is good in many ways. To start with a series of 
negative commands, to endeavor to make a complete or even partial break with life as they have 
known it, may prove disastrous. I have found it wise to ignore certain things until I have won the 
girls’ confidence, and they come willingly to talk of these things with me. Positive teaching, not 
negative, is going to help. 

The whole question of sex and the terrific part it plays in an African girl’s life has to be faced 
fearlessly, reverently, sanely. European conventions have simply got to go. There is no place 
for them here. A recent number of the International Review of Missions reminds us that scientists 
have warned us of the danger of interfering with primitive custom and tradition, of depriving the 
Natives suddenly of their usual vehicles of self-expression. One has to remember that the strong 
physical instincts of the African girl are as much part of her humanity as the spiritual consciousness 
with which she has been endowed, and any sort of undue repression is harmful. Our task is to give 
spiritual life its true place ; then the physical and sexual will assume their true places. To the 
African it is a normal thing to prepare even from childhood for marriage, which is to them the one 
aim and meaning of life. If we tell our girls that all the customs in which they have grown up are 
sinful, and forbid them, they will soon get an artificial conscience, and unless we give them greater and 
more absorbing interests they will probably go on practising these customs with guilty consciences, 
or continue, even if giving them up, still obsessed by sexual instincts. We shall have done no real 
good. 

What we have to do, I believe, is just to go on giving them the offer of the life that is in Jesus 
Christ, teaching them that the Spirit of God is for them; that their bodies are His Temple. It is 
new thoughts, new ideas, new conceptions of life that matter. Thoughts and ideals are more 
powerful even than custom. It is the expulsive power of a new affection that they need. There 
must be a new Master, or all the sweeping and garnishing we attempt to do will only lead to new 
devils entering in, and the last state will be worse than the first, for they will be sinning knowingly. 

The whole subject should be brought into the daylight, but this cannot be until one has won 
the girls’ confidence and they come of their own accord to think of these things. I talk to the girls 
freely and naturally about their bodies and God’s interest in their development, and the large part 
our physical natures play in God’s purpose for mankind. I try to show that if our vital energy is all 
used up in one way there is little left to nourish our mental powers, and God’s purpose is that our 
threefold nature should be evenly balanced, body, mind and spirit all keen and alert. If these 
girls learn to ponder these things in their hearts instead of gossiping with their companions, if they 
are taught the sacredness of the body as the vessel of the Divine Nature, if they are given happy 
and absorbing occupations and interests, the abuses now so prevalent will in time die out. Repres- 
sion will do little ; a new obsession is the real cure. To me, one woman pure in heart is worth a 
hundred pure in body. It is new, sweet, true thoughts of life we need to give them. 

Here again it is the teacher who is going to count far more than her teaching, and it is for us who 


346 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


would lead these African girls out into sweet and holy ways to feast our eyes on the beauty of 
holiness, rather than let our souls be seared by the sordidness of African life. A glimpse is enough 
to reveal to us from what Africa is to be saved. Holiness is health, well-being, sanity, wholeness, 
joy ; our very lives must preach this to others. It is the vision that matters ; the heart and imagi- 
nation fired by the high adventure of life. For only a heart on fire with a high and holy passion 
can ignite the spark in other hearts, and lead them out on to the high road that leads “‘ to the City 
of God and the haunt where beauty dwells.” 


OBSTACLES AND DIFFICULTIES 


Within the principle of trusteeship for African peoples accepted by European 
nations and by the Christian Churches, the duty of educating the girls and women 
unquestionably falls. But duty, however obvious and compelling, has obstacles to 
surmount and difficulties to remove. These present no excuse for delay or cowardice ; 
they constitute a call for thought combined with action, for interrelated study and 
work. The method of survey and research indicated in the earlier chapters of the 
Report have special value when applied to the education of women and girls. Some 
aspects of the problems of female education which call for more careful consideration 
than they have hitherto received may be suggested here. 


Education and Social Custom 


In Africa, as elsewhere, the grasp of custom closes more firmly round the lives 
of women than of men. Not all distinctively African customs are bad; possibly 
there is none without some element of good. Neither blind acceptance nor wholesale 
condemnation of existing customs will clear the way for the lifting up of woman in 
Africa. A search must be made for truth interpreted in terms of life. 

(a) It is easy, on the one hand, to extol the service of women in the fields, magni- 
fying the excellences of the woman farmer, and urging the dignity which attaches 
to bread-winning powers. It is equally easy to decry field labor altogether, to look 
on it as an evil from which women must be redeemed, a burden which cannot con- 
tinue where even elementary education has come. Truth lies between the two 
extremes. The examples of school work already given offer ground for hope that 
a balanced opinion is being formed. 

(b) Again there is the widespread custom of dowry, or bride-price, interwoven 
with a network of tradition and wrought into the very heart of African society. 
Some find it the center and cause of woman’s degradation, the chief barrier to her 
advance ; others regard it as a safeguard of her person and her rights. To find the 
truth between these two extremes will involve thought and observation—possibly 
a patient handling of complex situations through years. Whatever the place of 
bride-price in the past or the present, it cannot survive under modern conditions of 
life. . 

(c) Polygamy, with its open evils and still more damaging implications, is a 
problem no woman working in Africa can disregard. It dominates the life of the 
primitive tribes ; it invades the Christian Church. To condemn it is easy; to deal 
with it calls for the patience of God Who made Abraham His friend, and yet used the 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 347 


marriage relationship to picture the bonds between Christ and His Church. This 
is a subject on which those who have studied least sometimes speak most loudly. 
One of the spheres in which its implications can best be studied and its evils met 
is in schools where, on the one hand, girls and women and, on the other, boys and men, 
have their training for life. Certain aspects of polygamy lie in the sphere of the 
Church. But women, both teachers and pupils, have a call to the study of this 
grave problem in the light of knowledge and experience. 

It seems a far cry from classroom study of social anthropology in some western 
university to a girls’ school in East Africa, yet there is a growing interdependence 
which is full of hope. Mere condemnation of polygamy or any other social evil is 
futile. Nothing can be dealt with until it is understood. 


Education and the Traditional Position of Women 


The position of women in African society is so complex as to defy generalization. 
Her subservience is obvious, her ignorance is not questioned, her capacity is decried. 
Yet in many tribes she wields far-reaching influence ; in religious matters she often 
leads. Her work in household and in field is notable; in school work few find a 
difference in intelligence between the girl and the boy. The Queen Mother of Swazi- 
land was a ruler as potent as Khama himself. As conditions of modern life impinge 
upon African society an understanding of the strength and weakness inherent in 
the traditional position of women should be earnestly sought. However faulty in 
themselves, the old sanctions at least assure some measure of discipline; their 
removal, unless some better substitute is presented in the hour of release, may result 
in the weakening of moral forces, the breaking down of self-restraint. Yet not in 
Africa or elsewhere can the march be backward ; the way is forward to the light and 
liberty of the newer day. It is not release, but the ignorance of the door-openers 
which imperils ; those who educate African women must know the influences which 
have shaped them in the past and what are the ancient governing factors to be 
replaced by new and better controls. Here no study of women by women only will 
suffice. The old order was built on men and women linked together; the new 
order must be so established too. The interpretation of African society so essential 
to true educational work will only be found when men and women educators seek it 
together to meet their common need. 


Attitude of Africans towards Women’s Education 


The present attitude of Colonial Powers towards the education of women has 
been discussed in this Report. So has been the slowly changing attitude of missions. 
The need for this change is illustrated by a statement received from a woman 
missionary in East Africa : 

This would be a suitable center for a girls’ boarding school for the district. The local chief 
has asked repeatedly for one to be started. There is a boys’ industrial training centre here, and the 
two schools could develop side by side if the girls’ school were efficiently staffed. But there will 
have to be a decision as to whether the beginning of girls’ work in this station is to be held up in 
order to make advances possible in the boys’ school already established. The need is obvious, 


348 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


but when action is proposed it is said that ‘there is a lot of buildings still needed for the boys’ 
school and for houses for the European staff, so that it would be almost impossible to make an 
immediate start for girls, except in a very small way or in temporary Native buildings.” It is a 
question whether this is a wise policy in view of the future and the present opportunity. Surely 
it is wiser for education to develop simultaneously for boys and girls, rather than for one to wait 
on the other. It requires to be borne in mind that girls of Native races must be safely housed, 
and that Native buildings are not the most suitable in this respect. Boys, being freer and not likely 
to be molested, could live with greater safety in temporary Native buildings. 


The attitude of Africans themselves to this question is as complex and contra- 
dictory as might be expected in the present transitional stage of their social life. 
The evidence collected by Mrs. Vischer reflects the conflict between the new day and 
the old. She reports one tribe whose men objected to the opening of a girls’ school 
because women “‘ already knew too much.” The Commission endorse from their 
own observation her record of the widespread reluctance of conservative parents 
—especially the fathers—to allow the education of their girls. In their eyes educa- 
tion will make their daughters abhor and rebel against conditions accepted in the 
past. These include the customary arbitrary disposal of girls in marriage for a price 
arranged in their childhood, the perpetuation of polygamy, the heavy burden of 
field work, the disability and subserviency imposed on women in social life, and the 
lack of opportunity for self-expression. This recoil of parents in one direction, 
and of daughters in another, is inevitable in a time of social change due to contact 
of western civilization with primitive life. The acute strain of this conflict between 
traditions and ideals has been accentuated in the past by the provision of an educa- 
tion too little related to the actual life of the home and of the community. It is 
confidently urged that education on the lines proposed in this Report will help to 
dissolve the conservatism of the parents, presenting education to them in terms which 
they can understand, and will also guide the younger generation of women to find 
the true field for the utilization of their knowledge and training in the life of their 
own people. 

On the other hand, there is an insistent demand for education from the Native 
girls themselves and from many of the younger men who, having gained some 
measure of education themselves, desire its advantages for those who are to be their 
wives and the mothers of their children. There is no service more fruitful for the 
future of Africa than that of planting true ideals of education for girls and women 
in the African mind. 


Western Influences in Urban Areas 


A new range of educational problems is rapidly opening up as girls and women 
move from their tribal areas into townships and Europeanized districts. The fact 
that the moral problems which await them there are comparable to those of ports and 
cities in the West does not lessen the peril of the situation or release the white residents 
from responsibility. Mrs. Handley Hooper, in the statement already referred to, 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 349 


makes a strong case for education both in rural and urban areas as a preventive 
and remedial agency : 

The work of education in European centers and townships is specially difficult, and the fact that 
the Native population is drawn from many different tribes adds to the problem. Some of these 
areas constitute a real menace to Native womanhood and, consequently, to Native national life, 
owing to the licence and prostitution found in them. In the large townships women have drifted 
in from the Reserves in search of excitement and freedom, or to take work as nursemaids, as a 
change from the monotony of village life. The inference is obvious, that while every care must 
be taken to educate and enlighten the women in the towns and to guard the young girls from evil, 
work on the Reserves must be made full of attraction and interest, to prevent a further influx of 
girls into the townships. 

These girls need special care, and it is almost impossible for the European mistress of the day 
school to know how her pupils employ their out-of-school hours or to have any intimate knowledge 
of their personalities. A good boarding school would greatly help. A strong building, with a well- 
trained, permanent resident staff would be essential. Attached to this school, a hostel, to which 
the nursemaids and other girls earning their living could return for the night, would be valuable. 
Evening classes and pastimes should form an additional part of the hostel. Such a scheme should 
appeal to the European people in the township for support, as the average mistress can have no manner 
of idea how the girl who cares for her child in the day spends the night hours. Many make no pro- 
vision for sleeping accommodation, but employ these girls for day work. Such plans should be run 
in close connection with a rescue home, as there are many girls who have got beyond the help of 
simple school work and preventive recreation, and need special assistance. 


The conditions in urban areas in Africa thus constitute a further call for the 
cooperation of men and women, of settlers, economic groups and missionaries, and 
of the Native people. 


RECOMMENDATIONS 


The facts and implications of all that has been assembled by the Education 
Commission to West, South and Equatorial Africa, as well as by the Commission to 
Kast Africa, point definitely and conclusively to the following observations and 
recommendations concerning the education of Native girls and Native women in 
Africa : 

1. It is essential for the future welfare of Africa that the education of men and 
women, of boys and girls, should be parallel and simultaneous. The first step toward 
the realization of this conviction is that Government and missions shall immediately 
resolve to appropriate funds and prepare personnel to undertake the responsibility. 
There are sufficient illustrations of successful methods to warrant advance without 
further delay. 

2. Apart from the primary schools for children of both sexes, the immediate 
responsibility for the education of Native women and girls can for the present be 
entrusted to missions whose women missionaries are the only representatives of 
Kuropean and American civilization to whom this delicate task can be assigned. 
This, of course, involves both the sympathetic encouragement and the liberal financial 
aid of Government. The younger girls will naturally be in classes with the younger 
boys, where the slight adjustments necessary for them may readily be made. 


350 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


3. Hitherto the best illustrations of the effective education of girls are institutions 
exclusively devoted to them. Such schools have the advantage of complete adapta- 
tion to the life and needs of the pupils, and also permit freedom from the extensive 
and intensive forms of supervision required in coeducational institutions. The 
limited staff available in African schools cannot as a rule provide the direction 
necessary to guarantee safe and healthful relationships where young men and young 
women are living together. 

Coeducation has advantages, and must be adopted in the course of time. African 
youth must learn to work together to their mutual profit. A beginning has been 
made in some of the more advanced institutions by arranging complete separation in 
some phases of school life and correlation in others. Lovedale and Amanzimtoti in 
South Africa, for example, have provided a home life and some training for the girls 
that is almost entirely apart from that for the boys. The young men and the young 
women combine in many classes and school functions. In many American schools 
for Negroes the arrangements common to both sexes include those for meals and for 
occasional association in recreation. The absolutely essential condition of success 
as plans for even partial coeducation develop in East Africa is thoroughness of 
supervision equal to that of the best schools in Europe and America, and the close 
association of the teacher with social functions and recreations. 

4. The relative value of boarding and day schools, so frequently discussed, is to 
be determined largely by the community environment, the objective to be attained, 
and the available school facilities. Experience and observation in every part of the 
world prove the necessity for both types of schools. Boarding schools are necessary 
to cultivate sound habits of life in communities that lack the home conditions and 
influences essential to the formation of such habits. The brief contacts of the day 
school are in many instances insufficient for forming character when the influences of 
the home and the community are potent in the wrong direction. It is almost equally 
futile to send young men or young women with sound habits formed in the more or 
less artificial environment of the boarding school to cope single-handed with the 
traditions and customs of their home community. Experience in Africa and else- 
where has revealed tragic examples of such thoughtless use of those who have profited 
by long years of training away from their homes. The cruel and futile results of 
such action are far more certain in the case of young women than in that of young 
men. 

In such a dilemma, the solution is not the exclusion of either the boarding school 
or the day school, but the correlation of the two through the supervisory measures 
and friendly visitation described at length in former chapters. The boarding school 
must arrange its program of life with the utmost regard for the home communities 
and for the work to be done in them. This has not always been done in the 
past, and in consequence the value of the boarding school has occasionally been 
challenged. The day school must be a center of local influence which not only 
educates the community but helps returning pupils to live normally according to the 
high standard and sounder habits acquired at the boarding schools. This is a sphere 


THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS 351 


in which the extension workers and influences such as home-demonstration agents, 
sanitarians, farm demonstrators, and visiting teachers already described can function. 
Responsibility for the provision of all these facilities can be adequately handled only 
with the generous aid of the Government. 

5. What has been recommended presupposes all the adaptations of education so 
frequently presented throughout this Report : health and hygiene related to the life 
of womanhood and especially to the care of children; agriculture and gardening 
for food; the home and its responsibilities for the preparation of food, for restful 
sleep, for clothing, and for the full round of family life; recreation for childhood, 
youth and adults; character development. All these require faithful consideration, 
Nor can the process stop even at these elemental requisites, for woman must ultimately 
share the inspiration of all education. She is to be a copartner of the man. Her 
leadership in Africa is as basic as that of womanhood in Europe and America. 

6. The participation of the Native woman in such special services as teaching 
may seem to some far away, but. already the demand is becoming insistent and 
acute. The Union of South Africa has many Native women teachers, and most of 
the tropical colonies have some already at work. One Native woman in Natal has 
resigned her position as a teacher, and on her own initiative has undertaken the 
systematic visitation of Native homes so that she may encourage the women and 
girls to higher levels of home life and stimulate them to a better understanding of 
the beautiful and the good. Aided only by financial help from a missionary she is 
doubtless the forerunner of many other Native women who will bring life more 
abundant to Native women throughout Africa. 

7. The influence of Western civilization upon Native women is a cause of much 
anxiety to all who are concerned in the welfare of the African people. The unfortu- 
nate elements of these influences are naturally more active and potent in the urban 
areas, where the Natives of both sexes are removed from the restraints of tribal 
customs and Western people are more numerous. Nor are the degenerating results 
limited to the irregularities of sex relationships, whether among Natives or between 
Natives and Europeans. Native women are observing the life and manner of the 
white women of all classes. The Kuropean women, removed from the normal con- 
ditions of their home countries and surrounded by cheap labor, are often living a 
life of unnatural leisure. The imitative Native women soon acquire the idea that 
this leisure life and its attendant amusements are natural and worthy to be imitated. 
Western ideas of dress are adopted, and there follows a strong temptation to make 
harmful sacrifices of tribal customs and standards for the sake of adaptation to 
what is accepted as a normal European way of life. The dangerous character of 
such disintegrating influences has been recognized in earlier chapters. 

It appears, therefore, that there is a grave need for serious consideration of 
urban influences on Native women and girls. Drastic laws and “* Pass ”’ requirements 
are probably the least wise of all corrective measures. What is needed is the develop- 
ment of a genuine interest in Native women on the part of European women of all 
classes. Such an interest would cause white women to surround the Native girls 


352 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


in their employment with every protective influence. Fortunately there are the 
beginnings of organized and helpful activities in several African towns. Durban, 
Johannesburg and Pretoria have municipal hostels or home centers organized and 
maintained by missions and private philanthropy. There is need for the wide 
experience and extensive resources of the Young Women’s Christian Association to 
encourage, extend and direct this work. 

8. This chapter and the preceding ones call attention to the greatness and delicacy 
of the task which falls to the woman missionary. Thenumber of women educationalists 
in Africa must be increased. Larger funds are needed, not only for the extension of 
the work but for its maintenance and equipment. In addition, it is essential that 
proper training should be provided for European and American women who find 
their vocation in African schools. Some of the preparation needed should be given 
at home, some in African centers. The training for women missionaries should do 
more than cover the range of subjects included in the curriculum of an ordinary 
college in the West. The importance of preparation for a sound knowledge of the 
vernacular has been already urged. Special regard should be paid to such pre- 
liminary studies as will open the way for understanding the sociology and religious 
thought of Africa. With emphasis on all that qualifies the teacher to develop char- 
acter by moral and religious education, she should know how to deal with the needs 
of the home, including food, clothing and sleep; with recreation as a necessary 
element of full-orbed life; with the care of health and the means of physical 
development ; and with wise and progressive means of opening the way to a common 
community life for women and for men. 

9. A significant paragraph in the Statement on Education in Tropical Africa, 
issued by the Advisory Committee of the British Colonial Office, indicates the 
need for extending education not only to girls but to adult women, with a view 
to strengthening the relations between older and younger generations and lessen- 
ing the peril of revolt and of social disintegration : 


Side by side with the extension of elementary education for children, (here should go enlargement 
of educational opportunities for adult women as well a3 for adult men. Otherwise there may be 
a breach between the generations, the children losing much that the old traditions have given them, 
and the representatives of the latter becoming estranged through their remoteness from the 
atmosphere of the new education. To leave the women of a community untouched by most of 
the manifold influences which pour in through education may have the effect either of breaking 
the natural ties between the generations or of hardening the old prejudices of the elder women. 


SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER 
AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 


By H. L. SHANTZ, Bureau or PLanr InpustRY 
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 


PAGE PAGE 
Region Considered 353 Demands a Money Crop, 372; Educa- 
European Agriculture 354 tion Means Increased Demands on 
Native Agriculture from the Siindpoint of Agriculture, 373; Effect of Native 
Production . . ROOT Reserves, 374 
Total European and Native Preaisisa as The Necessity of education if the! Native e 
Shown by the Exports. 361 is to Hold His Place on the Land. 375 
The Place of Agriculture in the Life of he What Should Constitute Agricultural 
East African Native 361 Education SOS ee eh oe, RAE 
The Native and the Agricultural Dev aur The Agricultural Potentiality of East 
mentioithe Country...) ss « 363 ATriCas ns cates Lemme nett s meres 7. 
The Danger of Too Rapid Development of Ethiopia, 879; Kenya, 385; Uganda, 
Money Crops 5 6. & 16 8G) 387; Tanganyika, 389; Zanzibar, 392 ; 
Native Agricultural Mernocts a oso Nyasaland, 392; Portuguese East 
Woman’s Place in Native Agriculture . 370 Africa, 394; Northern Rhodesia, 395 ; 
The Effect of European Control on Native Southern Rhodesia, 896; Bechuana- 
PSVICHICULGS sities ea ech oki hn 7 ord land : 397 
Increased Populations, 371; Taxation General Summary ima Conatision a 80S 


REGION CONSIDERED 


HE region considered in this Report includes the following countries, colonies 
and protectorates : Ethiopia* (Abyssinia), Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, 
Portuguese East Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland, 
and comprises much of the great highland which extends down across East Africa 
from the Red Sea to the southern portion of the continent. This broad strip, from 
Northern Ethiopia on the north to the borders of the Transvaal on the south, is 
about 3,000 miles long and 800 miles wide, and has an area two-thirds the size of the 
United States, or 2,200,000 square miles of land, exclusive of the large lake areas. 
Of this great area, about 500,000 square miles, or about 23 per cent., are desert 
or semi-desert, usually hot and dry. Here crops fail, but following the rains the 
grasses spring up rapidly and dry in place as the droughts come on. This is, therefore, 
excellent grazing land, of low carrying capacity, but otherwise ideal for cattle, goats, 
sheep and camels. Here are found nomadic, pastoral tribes and often huge herds 
of wild game. The value of the grazing land is dependent on places where animals 
can secure the drinking water necessary for subsistence on the dried grasses. 


* Ethiopia, which Dr. Shantz prefers to adopt, is the name officially used in the country. 
Abyssinia, the title generally found in maps and in books, is used in the other parts of the Report. 


3538 


354 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Of the remaining area, over 300,000 square miles, or 14 per cent., lie at high 
elevation covered with temperate grassland and forest, and have a temperate climate 
where high temperatures are never known and frosts never occur, except in the 
extreme north or at high elevation. It is locally known as “‘ white man’s country,” 
a region relatively free from malarial and other fevers and where one is not oppressed 
with the combined effect of sun, heat and high humidity which, in the lower altitudes, 
are so difficult for the white man to endure. Here cattle do well and here can be 
growr such temperate cereals as wheat, barley and flax, and, if rainfall is favorable, 
as it usually is, such crops as coffee, tea, bananas and many temperate fruits. Although 
it is never cold enough to hurt coffee and bananas, it is never hot, the region having 
a sustained mild temperature, favorable alike for temperate and tropical crops. 

The remaining 1,400,000 square miles, or 68 per cent., lie for the most part at low 
elevation and are usually covered with tall grasses or forest, hot and very damp 
part of the year. Here are lands admirably adapted to warm weather crops such as 
cotton, sorghums, sweet potato, eleusine, groundnuts, sisal and, where water is 
sufficiently abundant, tropical crops such as sugar, rubber and, on the islands and 
along the coast, coconuts and cloves. 


EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE 


Only one portion of this great area is entirely free of European domination. 
Ethiopia, in the north, has practically no white settlers and no white overlords. It 
has no European agriculture. The same may be said of the agriculture of Zanzibar, 
which, although highly developed, is under the control of Arabs, Indians and the 
Native people. Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Nyasaland have been under 
European control for nearly half a century. Each contains valuable blocks of 
temperate climate land as well as hot, tropical lands. Gradually, during this period, 
land has been acquired by Europeans and put under cultivation. At the present 
time there are in the whole area about 44 million acres held as farm land, and of this 
less than 1 million acres are in crops (see Table I). Before the war Tanganyika had 
the largest acreage in European farms, but rough estimates would place the plantation 
lands now at 111 thousand acres. This is less than Southern Rhodesia with 276 
thousand, or Kenya with 274 thousand acres. Portuguese East Africa has about 
98 thousand, Nyasaland 48 thousand, Northern Rhodesia 40 thousand and Uganda 
27 thousand acres. 

Notwithstanding the small acreage at present under cultivation, the great variety 
of crops grown and their yield are proof of the capacity of the country to produce 
almost any type of agricultural produce needed in the world’s commerce. From the 
available reports maize occupies the largest acreage (435 thousand), followed by rubber 
(187), sisal (112), coffee (85), cotton (70), coconuts (29), sugar (28), tobacco (19), 
wheat (19), kapok (7), flax (6) and tea (5). The following fruits are listed in the 
Kenya agricultural census, given roughly in order of their number of trees in 1921. 
They illustrate the wide range of conditions found and the great variety of fruit which 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 


TABLE I 


ACREAGE UNDER EUROPEAN OCCUPATION AND CULTIVATION, AND ACREAGE DEVOTED TO EACH 


OF THE PRINCIPAL CROPS 
(With Notes and Source of Data) 


Country. 


Acreage 


under 


Acreage 
under 


Occupation. Cultivation. 


Pet O a UA VRSILHA My fe eh Gl at right) a: Pan at cis alvin egies 
Probably none, or very little. 

CSTE ug are dee aces ESA ye PS AB Ream SP reeds 
Principal crops in acres: Maize, 99,764 ; coffee, 52,249 ; sisal, 39,026 ; 
wheat, 15,429; coconuts, 8,818; flax, 5,889; sugar, 4,193; barley, 
818. (Agric. Census of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya for 1923, 
Table I.) 

CEES MTOREE 0 SpE eg AES Wr ark ty Ol cea a ae ee se 
Principal crops in acres: Coffee, 19,905; rubber, 12,8389; cacao, 
1,250 ; cotton, 456; sugar, 242; maize, 215; tea, 94. (Uganda 
Protectorate, Annual Report Dept. of Agriculture fer the year ended 
31st Dec., 1923. Appendix No. 5.) 

USBI KG JOR ce. Mice Med i te ease cee Sion fe ais to cu! gh ae ios, 
Principal crops probably about in the order, but lesser amounts than 
those shown in 1912-13, which were as follows in 1,000 acres: 
Rubber, 112 ; sisal, 61 ; cotton, 32 ; coconut, 20; coffee, 12; maize, 9; 
kapok, 7; rice, 1:2. In 1921 the non-Native census gave the number 
of Europeans engaged in agriculture as 299. If each of these held an 
acreage equivalent to that held by the German landowners, the area 
would approximate 566,000 acres; and if the proportion of land in 
crops were the same, the area in crops would be about 111,000. All 
land is public land, and plots of 5,000 acres can be leased for 99 years. 
Before the war the area under European occupation amounted to 
1,339,000 acres, while the acreage under cultivation amounted 
to 262,000. (Reichs-Kolonialami, d.d. Schutzgebiete in Afrika und 
d. Siidsee, 1912-18. Stat. Teil., pp. 82-83.) 

27 DAT OR ee PR Paes eG to! oo! Fett she lag ev bert s 
Mostly under control of Arabs and Indians. 

sie Lath mens tis EER a) Moll eo VS) Gees hs el lh elites bears 
Principal crops in acres are: Cotton, 12,658 ; maize, 9,901 ; tobacco, 
9,817; tea, 4,840; rubber, 4,000; sisal, 3,290; eucalyptus, 2,321 ; 
coffee, 492. (Land Commission Report, 1921, and Nyasaland 
Protectorate, Annual Report of the Dept. of Agric. for the year ended 
3lst March, 1920.) 

POECU SUCHE PLUASLU A LLICA rc me Due e  see ni sLAe oe Real ol no hath em eRe okt felt | % 
Principal crops, in acres: Maize, 32,000; cotton, 25,000; sugar, 
24,000 ; sisal, 9,000; rubber, 8,000 ; tea, 445. (The South and Kast 
African Yearbook and Guide, 1924, p. 660, and Special Consular 
Report No. 85, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1923.) 

Northern hOgesia gma mar <i r-ies tet ee aE ede o aia fies os | colt oe he be « 
Estimates from data in the South and Kast African Yearbook and 
Guide for 1924, p. 168, based on equal area of recent holdings with 
those of 1914, *KEstimated from acreage of principal crops which 


3,985,371 


93,808 


566,000 


8,705,255 


1,786,000 


3,000,000 


‘ 


274,319 


26,710 


111,000 


47,781 


98,000 


*40,000 


EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


w 
Or 
=>) 


Acreage Acreage 
Country. under under 
Occupation. Cultivation. 
are, in acres: Maize, 38,473; wheat, 2,041. (Inst. Intern. Agric., 
Rome, 1923.) 
Southern Rhodesia . yee Nae Se ee ee 90600, 000 tier 270.67, 
Colony of Southern Rhodesia, Report of the Director of Agric. for 
the year 1923, p. 11. The principal crops, in acres, are as follows : 
Maize, 220,937; tobacco, 9,054; groundnuts, 5,436; velvet beans, 
4,878 ; sunflowers, 3,563 ; beans, 2,811; potatoes, 2,274; pumpkin, 
1,481; kaffir corn, 1,153; teff, 1,160. (Rhodesian Agric. Journal, 
Vol. 21, Feb., 1924. Table III.) “Report of address by Sir Francis 
Newton, African World, Nov. 8, 1924, p. 77. 
Bechuanaland) 2s" Fo ee ae ke ne eT —_ 
British South African Company owns Tuli, Gaberones and Lobatsi 
blocks, latter mostly in occupied farms. (South and East African 
Yearbook, 1924.) 


can be produced: lemon, lime, orange, apple, peach, loquat, plum, guava, custard 
apple, maartje, fig, pear, papaya, grapefruit, quince, apricot and nectarine. 

It is evident that the acreage in crops could be enormously extended. Judging 
from the character of the country, there is every reason to suppose that the acreage 
of land in crops could in time reach a figure nearly equal to the present total culti- 
vated area in the United States. If the area under consideration is limited by the 
exclusion of arid and semi-arid land, the remaining area is 1,689 thousand square 
miles. In the United States, if the arid and semi-arid non-crop producing areas 
were eliminated, all the forest lands of the north and west included, the land in 
crops would amount to about one-fourth of the total area. On this basis, one-fourth 
of the tract here considered would have an area of 422,000 square miles, or 270 
million acres, or about three-fourths of the area in crops in the United States. This 
area in Africa could compete with production in America and Europe in such crops as 
maize, cotton, citrus fruits and live stock, but probably would not produce an excess of 
wheat or temperate cereals and fruits. 

Animal industry is also important to European agriculture and there are at present, 
roughly, about the following numbers of livestock on European farms in this area : 
1,237 thousand cattle; 288 thousand sheep and goats; 41 thousand pigs; 19 
thousand mules, donkeys and horses (Table II). 

The present development of European agriculture only indicates what could be 
done with the area. If this country is developed as'a white man’s country, it will 
result in pushing back the Native population or making them laborers on white 
plantations. It would soon break down the Native tribal rule, remove the Native 
from the land as a producer and result in complete white domination of the country. 
This would make. the problem of the maintenance of labor for the plantations the 
primary consideration, for on African plantations little or no physical work is done 
by white men. 


PLATE XLI 









sa aes 


me 


- 
BP Pte 


OSE RS 





ls ©, 

be 

by 4 
A 


WOMEN AT WORK 
(a) Mission Girls Fetching Firewood at Kikuyu ; (b) Women Drawing Water, Abyssinia ; 
(c) Women Resting while Repairing a Roof, Southern Rhodesia ; (d) Woman Working on 
and 


Threshing Floor, Bechuanaland; (e) Kikuyu Women, with String for Bag-making ¢ 
Straw for Thatching. 


PLATE XLII 


“eIUIssdqy ‘ayOX Pur MOT VATVN (p) £ erurssAqy ‘surey oy} atojaq SurMoyg AEN (2) 
‘ upuBss) ‘oUIsSNa[Y JO 95RI0}G TOF SovULIy (q) { vyLhuRSUL, ‘NSuBIeAA ‘SaotJ, daJZOQ (”) 


(1) HHOALINOINDV AO SGOHLAIN 





AGRICULTURE {N EAST AFRICA 3 


57 
TABLE II 
ANIMALS—EvuROPEAN OWNED 
Goats Horses, 
Country. Cattle. and Pigs. Mules and 
Sheep. Donkeys. 
Ethiopia . . . sere — — == — 
kenya iS Bhakti) On porate er . 190,140 153,318 12,120 3,807 
Agric. Census of the Colony and Protectorate of 
Kenya for 1928, Table 2. 
Uganda : : 1,539 101 88 13 


Uganda Protectorate Annual Report, Dept. 
Agric., for the year ended 31st Dec., 1923, p. 30. 
Tanganyika SEER Oe BPs Men Mf Vee Ms 8 Oe 36,288 41,569 5,450 3,211 
Reichs-Kolonialamt, d.d. Schutzgebiete 1912-13, 
Stat. Teil., pp. 90, 91, with Urundi and Ruanda 


eliminated, 
ASNZIDAT) %  . 5 ie hace ae) Pee oars = ae 2 
Nyasaland sae). fee: 15,445 2,231 843 283 


Nyasaland Protectorate, Annual Report of the 
Dept. of Agric. for the year ended 31st March, 
1920, p. 18. 


Portuguese East Africa 
Northern Rhodesia 


BCDC eh OUCh ia Secu! feat Coe ou 998,608a 91,0066 22,441@ 12,0GLd 
(a) Colony of Southern Rhodesia, Tie Report 
of Director of Agric., 1923, pp. 7 and 10. (4) 
Estimated from Resources of the Empire Meat, 
Fish and Dairy Produce, p. 45, for 1922, and 
Colony of Southern Rhodesia, Report Chief 
Native Commissioner, 1923, DeL2: 

Bechuanaland 


. . . . . . . . ° ae 


NATIVE AGRICULTURE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF PRODUCTION 


Most if not all of the produce of Native agriculture is consumed by the people 
themselves. Only rarely is produce grown for sale. This probably never would be 
done if it were not for pressure from the Europeans, either in the form of taxation 
or increased wants brought on by demands for clothing and schooling, or by develop- 
ing a taste for ornaments, dress, food and drinks not before required. The figures 
given (Table III) are meager, but serve as an interesting comparison with European 
production. The Kenya estimates give production but not acreage, and even this 
has been dropped from the latest census returns. The estimates give about 33 
million acres in Kenya occupied by Natives ; and there is probably not over 10 per 
cent. of this under crop. In Uganda about 3 million acres are estimated to be 
under crop by Natives, and in Southern Rhodesia a little over one million. In Kenya 
this acreage is largely maize, sorghum and other cereals, and potatoes and beans ; 
in Uganda.bananas, eleusine, cotton, sorghum, maize and coffee are the chief crops ; 
in Tanganyika grain, groundnuts, coffee, simsim, rice and cotton; and in Southern 
Rhodesia grain such as sorghum, maize, etc. No adequate conception can be obtained 


N 


358 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


TABLE 1Il 


Recorp oF NATIVE Crop PRODUCTION 
¢ Total 
Country. Acreage.* 
Hthiopia (Sheu a Sie ie Anes bier oe lete eer, is, 0s KoSanire sone cule Auhc mitt o MT oman «ate nas —_ 
Cereals such as teff, barley, sorghum. 


Kenya: soaks sis, bees eerie nis 6 segiiets hill adil chee Nat ers Sak cena «Oe enn (a) 
Produce sold in tons: Maize, 83,833; sorghum, 65,566; grains, 49,292; white 
and sweet potatoes, 25,063 ; beans, 10,282; simsim, 4,251; cotton, 268. (Colony 
and Protectorate of Kenya, Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Census, 1921. 
Table 22.) 
Ugandan agit in.) war pellet Wie -ctbes iets nts V's." c@ Oeeenme pret real ise iret Cio eins Manes . 2,759,075 
Bananas, 781,456 acres ; eleusine, 453,136: cotton, 426,738 ; maize oe varchar 
210,514 acres. (Uganda Protectorate, Annual Report of the Department of Agricul- 
ture for the year ended 31st December, 1923. Appendix No. 3.) 
Tanganyika mew. te. eee e ae acm ce belies a) ag omees C —_— 
No figures of acreage can be secured, but of port. crop mostly, if 1 not all, Netice 
grown. The following figures are from the Dept. of Agric., Tanganyika Territory 
Report for the year 1922, pp. 16-18: Grains, 16,284 tons; groundnuts, 11,300 ; 
coffee, 4,268 ; simsim, 2,848; rice, 2,389; cotton, 1,420 tons. 
ZAnZlDat ene Point as fee et. Sa AEs de CH tae he 378,600 
Coconut, 55 000 ; ; cloves, 48,000 acres; remaining 275, 000 acres ohiety cassava, 
eleusine, bananas, pineapples, citrus, maize, yams, toro, chickpea, sweet potatoes. 
nea Protectarate Bluebook for the year ended 3lst December, 1923, 


. 122.) 

ce ae on sans Dita aries amis are Bio stn © itt — 
Chiefly maize, cassava, persharn. connate! rice, but no Reon gansta! 

Portuguese East Africa . . Ci Mery AS Lass RE igs oes sit z Ae : — 
Maize, groundnuts, ceraiumn’ cassava, tobacco, cotton, but no sé nants eeoerds 

Northern Rhodesia . . be : ls eR) Ap pees ae i ne — 
Chiefly maize, tobacco, borer cious eroianure 

Southern Rhodesia secs cc. le sh vance ee, eo, wel ant I Geek LR ae Fee CL LOStaoG 


Chiefly grain. There are now 18,000 plows in use by natives. (Colony of 
Southern Rhodesia, Report of Chief Native Commissioner for the year 1923, p. 4.) 

Bechuanaland.s. 10-5 Aah. pa eee 
Chiefly sorghum. 


. . . 


* If we accept Uganda and Southern Rhodesian figures of acres cultivated per Native and 
apply this average to the whole area, the estimate would be about 23 million acres. 

(a) Total area of land occupied by Natives is 83,652 thousand acres, and probably not over 
10 per cent. of this actually under cultivation, 


of the amount of Native production. The data in Uganda and Southern Rhodesia are 
based on acreage. In Uganda each Native cultivates about 0-9 acre and in Southern 
Rhodesia 1:5 acres. If we accept these as representative, the area under cultivation 
for the whole area would be about 23 million acres, or over 20 times the amount of 
land under European cultivation. 

This figure is probably too high, for in Uganda the Native has been stimulated to 
production of cotton, and in Southern Rhodesia the character of the country would 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 359 


require rather more extensive tracts than in the more tropical countries and the 
use of the plow would also increase the acreage. But the Native production is very 
great as compared with European production, although little of the produce is sold. 
There are marked exceptions to this statement, notably in cotton which, except in 
Ethiopia, is produced almost entirely for export and almost entirely by Natives. In 
Uganda about half a million acres of cotton are produced, mostly in the eastern pro- 
vinces. Both Uganda and Tanganyika export Native-grown coffee. In Zanzibar 
and Pemba, Arabs, Indians and Swahili have one of the highly developed agricultural 
industries of the world ; here about 50,000 acres of cloves are grown, and the world- 
supply comes almost entirely from this source. There is also about an equal area of 
coconuts. 

In animal industry, more than in plant industry, the Native can now contribute 
to export. The number of domestic animals, only roughly estimated for Kenya, 
Tanganyika and Uganda, is about 7 million cattle and 11 million goats and sheep ; 
while Southern Rhodesia has about one million cattle and a million goats and sheep 
(Table IV). Ethiopia has large herds of cattle, goats and sheep. There are no 


TABLE IV 


Domestic ANIMALS—NATIVE OWNED 
Goats Horses, 
Country. Cattle. and Pigs. Mules and 
Sheep. Donkeys. 

PUCRAODG MIMD , I ANS ws ere lie etd ete gr ig 5 — — — —- 

ARSE ty 5 OF SI 2 OS Se 3,600,000 5,860,000 — 35,500 
Agric. Census of the Colony and Protectorate 
of Kenya for 1923, p. 13. 

Uganda hat Ea ae ees eet, cya eps ee CARE 

Uganda Protectorate, Annual Report Dept. of 
Agric, for year ended 8ist December, 1923, 
p. 28. 

Pemreadl Vik Merman He sy Ng 8 Ar: 
Reichs-Kolonialamt, d.d. Schutz. 1912-13, 
Stat. Teil., pp. 90-91, with Urundi and Ruanda 
estimates eliminated. 

Zanzibar Bee it Sea eee pee ae ee 11,075 — — —_ 
Inst. Intern. Agric., Rome, 1924, p. 189, data 
for 19138. 

PU AEMIANT Tt, ofa e te fies |. Uhre! Sule eae 
S. and E, African Yearbook, 1924, p. 689, 

Porvupoee toast: ATIC 2190! Vo iboats Sarna titer hg 
Special Consular Report No. 85, U.S. Dept. 
Commerce, 1928, p. 15. 

POELIOTIA SRNOUESIA: gait fais, rag UR ene coe ta, Tehe >, — — - _- 

PUPEPNCLIN MEMNOIORID: OFF, iat a Toes, Vase ost cis’ oe, 927,343 1,642,046 29,982 14,597 
Colony of Southern Rhodesia, Report of the 
Chief Native Com., 1923, p. 12. 

PICCUUMMEIBUUL ATE, Sie) bein cue ere Se 495,000 380,000 —- — 
Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924, p. 210. 


1,227,209 1,194,019 ct 12,220 


2,699,800 4,898,000 497 22,1538 


70,000 fe is. at 


200,000 2 =e a 


360 


EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


adequate estimates of their number ; they may be as great as for Kenya, Tanganyika 
and Uganda combined. As a rule, in the highlands of Ethiopia the cattle are very 
small and of the humped, small horned type, while larger cattle, a breed intermediate 
between the humped and big horn, are kept by the Galla and Somali in the lowlands. 
Portuguese East Africa is too low and hot and damp at times to be a thoroughly good 


TABLE V 


Exports AT THE PreszntT TIME 


Exports of Agricul- 


Agricultural tural Products in Total 
Countries. Products pounds sterling per pounds In Order of Importance. 
pounds square mile of Po- sterling. 
sterling. tential Cropland. 
Bthiopla es ee. — a 7,733 (a) Coffee, hides and skins, 
Kenya 5s ae ee CRSP a) 24, 4,669,498 (c) Coffee, maize, sisal, hides 
and skins, flax, simsim, 
groundnuts and wool. 
Ugunda . . . . 2,893,678 (d) 28 — (c)  Cotton,coffee,ivory, chillies, 
hides and skins, simsim, 
rubber, groundnuts. 
Tanganyika . . . 1,474,987 (e) 5 1,733,229 (e) Sisal, groundnuts, coffee, 
cotton, copra, hides and 
skins, grains, simsim. 
Zanzibar Se oe elediGGr575 (7) 2,126 1,506,340 (g) Cloves 1,127,084, and copra 


828,061 pounds sterling 
are chief exports. 


Nyasaland ,. . .- 888,840 (1) 10 442,164 (j) Tobacco, cotton, tea, rub- 
ber, fiber, beeswax, coffee, 
strophanthus. 

Port. East Africa . 8,'785,292 (k) 9 103,787,294 (m) Sugar, maize, copra, man- 


grove bark, oil seeds. 


North. Rhodesia . . 150,266 (n) O°5 616,088 (0) Lead, cattle, maize,tobacco, 


copper, hides and skins. 


South, Rhodesia. . 408,354 (p) 3 4,627,698 (q) Gold, asbestos, chrome, 


tobacco, animals, hides 
and skins, maize, fruits 
_ and nuts. 


Bechuanaland . . — — — (1) Gold, cattle, hides and 


skins. 


(a) Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P.648. Export to Great Britain only. 


(b) 1923. 


Agricultural Census of Colony and Protectorate of Kenya for 1923. Addendum. 


(c) 1920-21. South and East African Yearbook and Guide, 1924 (P. 636), and includes Uganda Protectorate. 


(d) 1923. 
(e) 1923. 


(f) 1928. 
(g) 1923. 
(h) 1920. 
(j) 1922. 
(k) 1920. 


Uganda Protectorate, Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for the year ended December 31st, 
1923. Appen. No. 10. 

pepe uM ae Britannic Majesty’s Government on the Mandated Territory of Tanganyika for the year 1923. 

p. 35-36. 

Zanzibar Protectorate, Bluebook for the year ended 31st December, 1923. Pp. 65-67. 

Zanzibar Protectorate, Bluebook for the year ended 31st December, 1923. P. 57. 

Nyasaland Protectorate, Annual Report of Department of Agric. for the year ended March 31st, 1920. P. 14. 

Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 202. 

Special Consular Report No. 85, U.S. Department of Commerce. P. 5. 


(1) No records of quantity, but 25,335 pounds of gold and silver in 1922-23. Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 210. 


(m) 1922. 


In Escudos. Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 1223. 


(x) Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 213. Includes only animals, hides and skins, grains, flour and tobacco 


(0) 1922. 
) 1922. 


(q) 1922. 


Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 213. 
South and East African Yearbook and Guide, 1924. P. 166. 
Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924. P. 212. 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 361 


cattle country, although there is estimated to be 200 thousand confined to small 
isolated areas. Bechuanaland is ideal cattle country, and cattle are the chief agri- 
cultural product. Much of the area has a very low carrying capacity, but there are 
here about a half million cattle and over a quarter of a million goats and sheep. 


ToTAL EuRoPEAN AND NATIVE PRODUCTION AS SHOWN BY THE Exports 


The total export of agricultural commodities amounts, roughly, to about 11 million 
pounds sterling, or about four times the Native tax of the region (Table V). Part of 
the export is represented in production from estates managed by Europeans, but 
the greater portion of this produce comes from the Natives themselves. It is only 
an indication of what might be expected in the future. Coffee stands first as an 
export in Kenya, second in Uganda and probably in Ethiopia, third in Tanganyika, 
and seventh in Nyasaland ; cotton first in Uganda, second in Nyasaland, fourth in 
Tanganyika ; sisal first in Tanganyika and third in Kenya; while tobacco is first 
in Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia. Cattle, sheep and goats are important, as 
shown by the export of hides and skins, which are first in Bechuanaland, Northern 
Rhodesia and probably Ethiopia; second in Southern Rhodesia, fourth in Kenya, 
fifth in Uganda and sixth in Tanganyika. Judging from the present export, 
East Africa is capable of producing for export coffee, cotton, maize, sisal, ground 
nuts, simsim, cloves, copra, chillies, tobacco, rubber, tea and animal products. 


THE PLAcE or AGRICULTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE East AFRICAN NATIVE 


In the region here considered, an area of over 2 million square miles, there are 22 
million Native inhabitants, practically all engaged directly or indirectly in but one 
industry, agriculture, here used to include both plant and animal industry. <A 
very few Natives, driven into unfrequented regions, are hunters, and along the coast 
there are many traders and a few tradesmen and seafaring people ; but even here 
the women usually maintain the food supply by growing crops. It is probably well 
within the margin of safety to say that 21 million, or 95 per cent., have no other 
livelihood. ; 

The agriculture is much diversified, and it is difficult to generalize where so many 
different peoples are involved. There are purely pastoral tribes and other tribes 
which, while largely pastoral, depend partly on crop production; there are many 
tribes that have become almost entirely vegetarian, and in some cases, such as the 
Baganda, have limited their diet to practically a single plant, the banana. Practically 
all tribes keep bees and use the honey as food or in the preparation of Native drinks. 

In many of the pastoral tribes cattle are held in high esteem, so high in fact, 
that they are treated with almost more reverence than are the people themselves. 
This is almost a general rule among the pastoral peoples, and their animals are given 
most careful attention. That the animals are cared for according to European 
standards is not true, but they are by no means neglected. The esteem in which 
cattle are held does not seem to apply to other domestic animals. Perhaps the 


362 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


greatest pastoral tribe in the area considered is the Masai, who in 1921 were estimated 
to have 585 thousand cattle in Kenya (Kenya Agricultural Census), and probably 
have 350 thousand in Tanganyika Territory. They grow no crops, but to a great 
extent occupy land capable of producing crops. The Somali, on the other hand, 
occupy for the most part sections of country not capable of crop production, and are 
therefore forced to depend largely on cattle and other grazing animals. In the west 
there are the Bahima and Watusi of the highlands of Central Africa, who are pastoral 
but dominate agricultural peoples. Many of the other tribes keep cattle, especially 
those located in the more open and somewhat drier grassland regions, such as North 
and East Uganda, where such tribes as the Teso and Lago, although living largely 
on crops, still keep large herds of cattle. Throughout all Ethiopia cattle and other 
domestic animals are abundant ; and the same is true of Bechuanaland and Southern 
Rhodesia. Native tribes turn naturally to livestock, and it is largely those who have 
been conquered or driven into areas where disease is the determining factor who 
depend entirely on plant production. Exceptions occur, such as the Angoni, a Zulu 
tribe in Nyasaland, who, although they keep cattle, are said to make very little 
practical use of them. 

Except for the animal production of hides and skins, and the production of 
cotton, maize, coffee, groundnuts and a few other crops, the Native population of 
Kast Africa does not contribute materially to the world’s supply of food or raw 
material. But the measure of present production cannot be based on-the materials 
exported. In an area of one and a half million square miles of land within the 
crop-producing belt, there are probably 21 million Natives raising their own food 
supply by growing crops. _Many of these people keep a few animals, and nearly 
all keep goats and chickens. Wherever one goes in East or Central Africa the 
Natives are usually at work either breaking new land, cutting and burning the timber 
or brush, or planting, weeding, protecting or harvesting the crop. In most places, 
where the climate permits, production is more or less continuous, insuring a food 
supply and often fresh vegetables every day in the year. Where the season is marked 
by long, intensive drought periods the crops follow the season, and there is a regular 
period of seed time and harvest. 

Along the coast especially many of the Swahili are traders, and this occupation is 
finding its way among some of the inland peoples, especially those who have been long 
in contact with Arab or Indian influence. Under natural conditions, before the advent 
of the European, the trading was done in the regular Native markets where produce 
was exchanged. Now the duca or Indian shop is known to many Natives, and here 
much of their money is spent. A few of the Native peoples have learned the method 
and are now setting up shops somewhat similar, where cloth, salt and a few other 
articles are sold to Natives. On the whole, however, very few of the Natives are 
engaged in trading. There are probably a greater number whe are what might be 
called tradesmen, who make the spears, knives, ornaments and implements used by 
the people at large. The smiths, for example, constitute almost a caste among many 
tribes, the son following the father in his trade, and all iron work is done by them, 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 363 


Often they have no knowledge of smelting iron; and at present this is left largely 
to the white man, but many tribes used to have this as a relatively important industry. 
It was generally the lower social castes who smelted the iron and worked it up. In 
Tanganyika, as in most other areas, it is the men who do the iron work, make rope, 
weave cloth and in some cases do all the sewing, while the men and women make 
pottery, mats and baskets. The total number of men engaged in trades is relatively 
small. 

The presence of the European has demanded labor, and the industrial training 
has drawn many Natives away from their homes to this type of work. Only rarely 
can a Native with industrial training find employment in his home, and in most cases 
he pushes off to the cities or on to the coast. The Kavirondo, for example, are 
scattered from Lake Victoria to Mombasa, and also to Zanzibar. In the Native 
villages at present, and until considerable change is made in the methods of home- 
building, there is little demand for industrial work. On the basis of totals, not a 
great many Natives are thus employed. 

In certain of the countries, notably Kenya, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasaland 
and Southern Rhodesia, the demand for labor on European plantations draws 
thousands of natives from their natural pursuits to the European plantations. In 
Kenya 71,000 Natives were employed monthly in 1922. These are for the most part 
men, while in the Native shambas the women do most of the agricultural work. 
There are disadvantages to the Native communities in this system, but certain advan- 
tages as well. Labor already is recognized as difficult to secure in Kenya, and a 
further increase of European plantations might easily be retarded by this con- 
dition. This would seem to indicate that the European plantations cannot be 
greatly extended, unless some increase is secured in available labor or there is a 
great increase in labor-saving devices. The introduction of simple implements 
more effective than the hoe, and yet applicable to Native workers, has added to 
effective cultivation in parts of Nyasaland. 


Tne NATIVE AND THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY 


In the occupation of a new country the Native may be regarded chiefly as labor 
to be used in the plantation type of development. Plantations of coffee, sisal, 
rubber or cotton can be put in by large companies or private owners and the Natives 
used as the laborers on these plantations. Usually some direct or indirect pressure 
must be brought to bear to ensure this labor ; sometimes it is conscripted, as in 
Portuguese East Africa, or again it is secured indirectly by the levying of head 
or hut tax. The Natives under this system become the labor supply, and ultimately 
entirely depend upon the white planter for employment. While in some cases the — 
welfare of the Native may be carefully guarded, the purpose of the system is not 
to improve the Native as a man, but to maintain him as a cheap labor supply. 

But the trader, manufacturer or even the administrator, looking to greater exports, 
may encourage the Native to produce the crops wanted, such as coffee, cotton or 
tobacco. While this may be largely in the interest of the Native, that may not be 


364 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


the first consideration. Export is the first consideration, and very little thought may 
be given to the wellbeing of the Native community. 

From the agricultural point of view, either in America or Europe, the wellbeing 
of the farmer is the first consideration. The interests of the farmer, his family and 
community come first. However desirable it might be from the standpoint of com- 
merce or the manufacturer to grow a certain product, the test rests with the probable 
effect of such action on the farmer himself, for his interests are first. But, since 
markets are important, it is most often advisable for the farmer to produce what is 
wanted by commerce. However, no agriculturist would advise shifts of type of 
agriculture to meet temporary market demands, if by so doing the agricultural system 
ran the risk of great loss as well as gain. The first question is what is to the best 
interests of the farmer, and the policy and program are based on the answer. The agri- 
culture should be on a sound basis, diversified so as not to be threatened by bad 
markets in one or two commodities, balanced in such a way that both food and money 
crops are produced and labor well distributed throughout the year. In many cases 
this point of view will also promote the greatest production of export commodities, 
and it should also increase the efficiency of labor for the larger Kuropean plantations. 
It is, therefore, not incompatible with the production of both export commodities and 
labor. A policy of this kind which is being rapidly developed in parts of East 
Africa should, with the adoption of an educational policy, lead the Native rapidly to 
a higher plane ; while to reduce him only to a position of cheap labor or a tool in the 
hands of big exploitation schemes may result in harm to him in the long run and in 
decreasing the ultimate productivity of the country as a whole. 


THE DANGER OF Too Rarip DEVELOPMENT OF Monry Crops 


If the men can secure, by a frugal life and a reasonable amount of labor, the 
necessary cash to pay their taxes and provide for the necessities and little luxuries of 
hfe while the wives provide the food, the family units are held together, there is a 
stimulus to thrift and careful planning, to the gradual extension of the cultivated 
area and to the development of better methods of culture. If, however, the returns 
on the money crop are immediate and out of all proportion to the amount of labor 
required in their production, there is a strong tendency to reduce the thrift and 
industry of the Native. The demoralizing effect of the great returns for cotton 
production in Uganda and Kavirondoland in Kenya are deplored by many. Although 
the industry fits admirably into the Native’s system of agriculture, and although no 
one could question the desirability of cotton as a money crop in the section, all except 
those who profit directly by this sudden increase see in it a great danger to the 
Native people. Could the development have come a little more slowly, could the 
returns to the Native have been considerably less, the ultimate result would have 
been much better. There is a strong need here of a stabilizing influence, one which 
will prevent the Native from becoming a spendthrift and lead him to the accumulation 
of his wealth for the future use of himself and family. Wealth to the Native in the 
past has meant wives, which, in turn, meant larger acreage of cultivated land. Here 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 365 


again he is hampered from following his highest ideal, and must seek other means of 
storage of wealth and prestige. 

At the present time the effect has been about the same on the Native population 
as it would be on a labor community if all at once they were to become millionaires. 
Here, again, the remedy is not to decrease cotton production but to study the domestic 
economy of the Natives and enable them to put this rapidly acquired wealth to some 
good advantage. It seems strange that in Uganda there is what might be referred 
to as an excess of a money crop, while in Nyasaland and portionsof Northern Rhodesia 
the same crop cannot be sold when grown on account of cost of transport. 

A single crop system is, on general principles, to be avoided and preference given 
to diversified agriculture. This principle should not be dogmatically applied, for it: 
is not of universal application. In Native agriculture the danger of a single crop 
system is very great, and efforts should be made to avoid it wherever possible. 


NaTIvE AGRICULTURAL METHODS 


The agricultural methods of the Natives in Africa have often been condemned as 
shiftless, wasteful and destined to decrease the productivity of the country. Again, 
one meets continually the statement that the Native knows nothing about crop 
production. These statements, in a way, reflect the attitude of the European toward 
the Native, the assumption being that since he does not follow our methods and our 
practices he must be essentially wrong. But there are many testimonies in the litera- 
ture to the effect that the Native is an excellent agriculturist. It is well to bear in mind 
at the start that very little serious attention has been given to his methods and 
practices and that there is no adequate scientific study of Native agriculture on which 
to base sound conclusions. 

It must be admitted that he produces the necessary food by his method ; that the 
famines are the result of unfavorable seasons and lack of foresight or accrued capital 
(as stored food) to carry over the famine period. That may not be poor culture. It 
may be poor planning. But it is only our elaborate system for the distribution of foods 
that protects civilized man from the recurrence of famine ; and even now there is 
seldom a time when in some part of our world there is not a shortage of food. 

There are several practices which are quite uniformly condemned which can 
easily be defended. The practice of abandoning land after a few crops and cultivating 
a new patch is generally condemned. It is said to leave the land depleted of plant food 
and subject to rapid erosion. There is some evidence that in places the surface soil 
has been washed away following this practice, but this might easily have happened 
had the land been continued under cultivation. It has been found that rotation is neces- 
sary in modern agriculture ; that continuous cropping, especially with a single crop, 
usually results in reduced yields ; and that the easiest way to maintain productivity 
is to rotate crops and supply the land with manure and fertilizers. Even with these 
methods soil organisms accumulate which make it impossible to cultivate a crop which 
is subject to their attack. To meet this situation, the land must be allowed to lie 
fallow or crops be rotated. Natives, by their method of abandoning the land and 

N2 


366 EEUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


taking a new piece, accomplish what the European, with all his staff of scientifically 
trained men, has not yet satisfactorily accomplished. They escape the problems 
of soil fertility and physical condition, and the question to a very great extent of 
plant diseases. They allow the land to lie fallow, to go back to grasses and brush, 
and return to it only when they are sure they can secure a good crop. In another 
thing they excel the European. Natives do not cultivate the poor land. They choose 
the best. At this they are wonderfully well skilled, and the Europeans should 
have careful studies of their method. They will select one piece for one crop, another 
for a different crop, and are often very particular about the proper rotation of crops. 
They will pass over easily accessible poor land and choose good land, although it lies 
at some distance. In this they are greatly aided by their method of cultivation. 
If they used plows, it would not always be easy to choose the best land. In American 
and Kuropean agriculture the unfertile uplands are often seen in crop, and the fertile 
lower slopes and small alluvial flats producing nothing but weeds. These small patches 
the Native seeks out. In general, the Natives use excellent judgment in the selection 
of land and the rotation of crops, and their method of rotation of land insures new, rich 
soil free from harmful bacteria, fungi and insects, thereby avoiding the two greatest 
problems of modern agriculture, the maintenance of soil fertility and physical con- 
dition and the avoidance of plant diseases. To advocate a change in the Native 
system until the Native is prepared to assume the added responsibility, or we are 
prepared and equipped to help him, would seem highly unjustifiable. 

It must not be presumed from the foregoing discussion that nothing can be Jone 
to improve Native agriculture. That is probably far from the fact. However, before 
any changes are suggested, a thorough study should be made of the Native methods 
and only such changes suggested as are sure to bring beneficial results. The old 
foundation must not be destroyed until we are sure we can get along as well without it. 

There is great variation in the agricultural methods practised by different tribes 
and in different types of country. Under natural conditions the Native is conservative 
and does not rapidly change his methods. It is possible that the migrations, either 
voluntary or forced, have carried him into country where his old methods are not 
well adapted. This has happened repeatedly in the settlement of the United States, 
and it would be even more likely to happen with a less intellectually developed Native 
people. Some of his methods may be those developed under the earlier conditions, 
and the Native since may have been pushed out on to land poorly supplied with 
rainfall or on to areas lacking in fertility, and where his old methods had to undergo 
adjustment to new conditions. Here may be found a very useful means of deter- 
mining some of the migration movements. 

In the temperate highlands, where water is abundant, agriculture is often developed 
to a high degree. In all cases Native agriculture is ‘‘ relieved from the tyranny of 
the plow” which so often forces the cultivation of relatively poor level land and leaves 
the rich hillsides vacant. With the axe and hoe and the aid of fire, trees and grass 
are cut and burned, thus adding to the soil a quantity of mineral fertilizer. The 
hillsides are as easily cultivated as the level lands. In the high land of East Africa 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 367 


crops are produced on almost every mountain side. Methods of cultivation vary 
considerably. As a rule, plantings are mixed, but that is not always the case. About 
the Central African mountains the banana plays a prominent part in the Native 
planting, and this is often interplanted with yams (Diascorea), sweet potato, pennise- 
tum, maize and sorghum. The country is often quite densely inhabited and produces 
a relatively heavy crop. In some places the trees are not entirely removed but left 
to form a thin canopy. Then the soil is prepared and planted to maize jusi before 
the rains. The fields often present a series of maize plants varying from young to 
ripe plants, interplanted with rice and a mixture of sugar cane, cassava, yams and 
banana. Pennisetum and eleusine are often important grain crops, and the banana 
almost invariably one of the dependable vegetables. 

The Watusi of Urundi, a highland tribe, are largely pastoral but also cultivate 
crops. They rely chiefly on the labor of the subservient Wahutu to grow the crops. 
Here all take to the fields as soon as the rains begin. In selecting land, preference 
is here said to be given to patches which have previously been cultivated. The fields 
are fertilized with cow, goat and chicken dung, ashes, sweepings, etc., and the land 
is not ridged in cultivation but planted flat. In June sorghum and eleusine are 
harvested, and maize and beans in October or November. During the dry season, 
June to September, small areas along the river or lowlands supplied with water are 
planted to maize, potatoes and beans. They utilize the available streams for 
irrigating and show engineering skill in diverting streams and constructing aqueducts. 
They usually store ample supplies of food. The banana is an important food and 
mixed with beans constitutes an important element of the diet. 

The Wachagga at Kilimanjaro is another tribe showing a high degree of agri- 
cultural skill. They have developed systems of irrigation, raise many different 
crops such as banana, maize, sorghum, eleusine, beans, sweet potato, yams, ete. 
Their huts are neatly constructed of grass or banana sheaths. Many of the Natives 
are growing coffee and have small plantations of trees excellently cared for, and 
have shown considerable ingenuity in pulping and handling a new crop. There 
is little doubt that people such as those here considered could w:th only slight 
modification of their methods produce a sufficient surplus to cover their demands for 
a money crop. The effect on the people from the standpoint of education and 
moral steadfastness would be much greater if the process could be brought about 
gradually and the returns for labor be not too great at the start. 

In Ethiopia cattle are used in preparing the land. A primitive plow consisting 
of a wooden point, often tipped with iron, is drawn through the soil, breaking 
it up but not turning it as would a European plow. Seeds are then scattered and 
the land plowed again. This leaves the surface rough and admirably adapted to 
absorb rainfall. It is doubtful if, bythe aid of a European plow, such good 
results could be obtained with so little labor. And in the stony land the 
Native method would seem far superior. In many places the fields are almost con- 
tinuous and at the higher elevations consist chiefly of barley, with chickpea and 
other cereals. eff is a very important crop and a staple food. At lower elevations 


368 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


sorghum comes in as the dominant crop, and on the lowlands off the plateaux cotton 
is grown to supply the weavers with lint for making the cloth universally worn 
by the Amhara and Shoa. In general, livestock and grain growing are the types 
of agriculture practised, but there are many other crops of importance, such as the 
ensete, a banana of which the root furnishes a starchy food. The Ethiopian is far in 
advance of other Central African Natives in the use of cattle in the cultivation of 
his fields and in that men do much of the field work. As a rule the produce is confined 
to temperate and sub-tropical crops, and such a crop as cassava, which is a staple 
food crop farther south, is not important here. 

In more truly tropical country, such as the lowlands about Tanganyika, Tabora, 
Burro Hills and portions of Nyasaland, the type of agriculture is quite different 
from that described for the highlands. Here cereals and cassava are likely to be the 
most important crops. Cassava is a perennial, requiring from two to four or five 
years to reach its best development. The land is usually prepared by the men, 
who cut down the grass and trees, burn off the brush and grass, or in some cases 
rake it together and cover it over with soil, making long ridges or hills. These 
ridges or hills are often as much as one and one-half to two and one-half feet high. 
The grass is then lighted and allowed to burn through, or to char through. 
On this ridge cassava, maize and groundnuts are usually planted. The maize and 
groundnuts are harvested and the soil replanted. When the cassava is well started 
it forms a thicket from which the roots are taken out as needed, or all harvested when 
it reaches the proper size. Sorghum, one of the most important crops, is usually 
planted alone and develops a dense stand. During the latter part of the growth it 
must be continually protected from birds. Pennisetum, eleusine, sweet potatoes, 
squash, simsim, beans, cowpea, groundnuts, tobacco, cotton and many other crops 
are planted, usually in mixed culture. 

In the heavier forests of the Congo, and probably in portions of East Africa, the 
forest is only partly cut down, the land cleared and burned free of litter, and bananas 
and cassava planted, then maize, and a little later upland rice. The two annual 
crops are harvested and replanted until the cassava is relatively large. After about 
four years this is harvested and the area becomes a dense banana field, from which 
bananas are taken as long as they are produced, after which the natural vegetation 
is allowed to reestablish itself. 

The practice of ridging the soil is very general throughout Central Africa. It 
has several advantages. Heavy wet land can often be dried to good physical con- 
dition by this practice, which is also used in parts of Europe. During the drenching 
heavy rains it protects the plants from inundation and insures a better seed 
bed. The practice of charring the grasses, which are covered with soil, would seem 
to be desirable from several points of view. Termites would rapidly eat up and carry 
off the grasses if left for any length of time. If this were not done, or while it is being 
done, it is probable that.the cellulose bacteria would reduce the material and at the 
same time consume some of the available nitrogen of the soil, leaving the soil less 
fertile than before. Charring, however, would not only kill fungi and insects which 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 369 


might be harmful, but it would leave in the soil the nutrient salts to increase its fer- 
tility and the charcoal to improve its physical condition. Although none of these 
things 1s probably in the mind of the Native, through long years of trial this method 
has given consistently good results. 

In the regions of less rainfall, or longer drought periods, the Natives depend largely 
on cereals. In Uganda eleusine is very important, and is the principal crop used 
for storage against famine. The sorghums, pennisetum and eleusine become 
the staple foods and they are usually grown in relatively clean culture. The soil 
is selected carefully, and in many places when the crop approaches maturity it must 
be protected during every moment of daylight to prevent its destruction by birds. 
The amount of labor and care which the Native puts on his crop is sometimes very 
great. While most of this responsibility falls on the woman, the man has his especially 
assigned share of the work to perform. Still, in the development of agriculture, 
many of the prejudices which prevent the man from taking part in the cultivation of 
the soil should be overcome. In accomplishing this, there is little justification in 
teaching the women that the work of producing food is not a noble occupation for 
them. 

At the edge of the desert the Native often shows wonderful ingenuity in securing 
his harvest. Only the most favorable land is chosen, an anthill here, a small alluvial 
bottom there, the base of an old burned tree, a small area which receives flood water 
irrigation. Here also he plants only crops which are adapted to limited water supply, 
such as sorghum, pennisetum, peanuts and melons. Tribes in this type of country are 
largely pastoral, and cereals form only a part of their food supply. 

As stockmen the Native tribes, such as the Bahima, Watusi and Masai, are strong 
and energetic and have driven into excellent country, fully capable of producing good 
crops. These people are naturally cattle men and their admiration for animals 
amounts almost to worship. The individual cattle are known by name and are cared 
for excellently. There is a certain amount of breeding and selection in their cattle, 
but this is largely for appearance rather than usefulness. The cattle are constantly 
under protection and are not allowed to be alone during the day or outside of the 
kraal at night, but they do not understand the value of isolating sick animals, and in 
this way diseases spread rapidly throughout their herds. The care given cattle is 
greater than that given to sheep, goats or chickens, but on the whole the Native 
probably gives his animals more care than does the European. It is, however, seldom 
directed to protect the animal from contracting diseases. 

The purely pastoral tribes, which live in semi-desert or desert lands, have developed 
the highest type of agriculture possible under the conditions. There can, of course, 
be improvements in the type of cattle, decrease in cattle diseases and probably a 
gradual development of the principle of stored food for periods of famine. Such 
periods of long-continued drought, where herds of animals die because they do not 
have feed, can often be passed over successfully if, during the favorable years, a 
small amount of feed is grown and stored. This would probably also aid in increasing 
the safe carrying capacity of the semi-deserts. When no food is stored, the number 


370 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


of animals must always be balanced against the poor years. When food is stored, the 
level may be raised to almost the average year. The termite presents a very great 
obstacle to the storage of foods, and it is doubtful if pit silos could be used in much of 
Africa. 

Tribes which, like the Masai, live entirely on cattle may eventually, in the interest 
of the economic use of land, be brought by education to grow crops as well, and by 
this means be enabled to live comfortably on a smaller area. The government school 
at Narok has already made a beginning along this line. 

The agriculture of the Native is, as a general rule, admirably adapted to the region 
he occupies. The Native is careful also to choose just the right type of soil for each 
crop and to choose the right crop to put on new land. Without the scientific know- 
ledge of methods of maintaining soil fertility and combating plant diseases, he has, by 
his method of rotating land, succeeded in avoiding both difficulties to a large extent. 
There may, and doubtless are, many cases where recent migration is indicated by the 
use of methods not thoroughly adapted, but until the Native methods are studied 
and thoroughly understood no such conclusion should be reached. In modern 
agriculture there has been an unusually large amount of dogmatic teaching said to be 
based on scientific foundation. Deep plowing in a semi-arid country ; summer fallow 
with dust mulch; increasing soil fertility or available nitrogen when the water 
supply is inadequate—all these things have proved failures under certain conditions, 
although they are desirable under others. We have swung from one extreme to the 
other, and the “ slogans ”’ of agriculture must be questioned very seriously before they 
are allowed to interfere with the well-established customs of the Native. While his 
practice may not be found to be the best in the end, this conclusion should only be 
accepted after a thorough and unprejudiced study of his methods and their results. 
There seems to be nowhere in the literature an adequate study of the African Native 
methods of crop production. This might well be one of the first undertakings of the 
agricultural departments of the various colonies and of the agricultural missionary. 


WoMAN’s PLAcE IN NATIVE AGRICULTURE 


No system of agricultural education which aims at adapting the Native to his 
environment can omit the woman from the most prominent place. In all tribes she 
is the agriculturist, the one who plants, cares for, collects and prepares the crop for 
food. It is an honorable position, an out-of-door position, and may to a_ great 
extent account for the relatively fine physique of the women of the Native tribes in 
Africa. If education leads her away from this healthful and important work and 
guides her only to what are commonly known in our society as home duties, it will 
have much for which to answer. The man’s duties have been immensely simplified 
by the stoppage of intertribal war, and his energies should be diverted to more useful 
pursuits. To ask him to take up work which for centuries has been regarded as 
woman’s work is demanding that he forsake his pride altogether, and this may weaken 
him morally to the detriment of his race. The simplest method at present seems to 
be to give the men the care of the new crops to which there has been attached no 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 371 


definite custom, and which are probably the money crops. Man will plant and 
cultivate these with no feeling of degradation. It is perfectly possible that woman, to 
a large degree, will continue to be the food producer and that man will take his place 
in the fields as the producer of the money crop. He can pay the tax and care for extra 
expenditures, while the wife or wives grow the cereals and vegetables and provide a 
constant food supply. Already the men do much of this outside work. As a rule 
they clear the land, provide material for building new huts, do the sewing and needle- 
work wherever it is done and often aid in the planting. The women have as their 
special work the growing and care of the food crops. The women can profit not only 
by a knowledge of the natural laws governing crop growth, but by all the knowledge 
necessary to the proper balance of the food ration for the family. To interfere with 
the Native’s diet would seem even more serious than to interfere with his agricultural 
methods, until we are sure that the changes proposed are not to his detriment. To 
develop his tastes for highly seasoned foods and drinks may only necessitate the 
attention of our medical men to cure the accompanying disorders of digestion. 

Any scheme of education intended to prepare the Native for agriculture and looking 
to the preparation of teachers or extension workers in this field must train both men 
and women. Women trained to a better understanding of the natural factors which 
determine crop production may then become the teachers of other women in this 
important work. To train only men for supervisory work leaves out of consideration 
one of the oldest and best grounded African customs and one which cannot by any 
stretch of imagination be said to be degrading or not in the best interests of the race. 
It is necessary therefore in all plans for the improvement of agriculture to consider 
the woman as well as the man. This means then the grounding of the woman and 
the man in natural science essential to further education in hygiene and agriculture. 


Tue Errect oF EuroPpEAN CoNTROL ON NATIVE AGRICULTURE 


Increased Populations 


Probably one of the first effects of European control will be to increase populations, 
although there are very few reliable statistical data on this point. Intertribal wars 
and epidemics of tropical diseases are being controlled to some extent, and there are 
better regulations for sanitation and prevention of famine. These should be reflected 
in increased populations. This may be partially offset by a reduction in polygamy 
and the increase in venereal diseases. Increased population would react on Native 
agriculture in regions of dense population. If eight acres of tillable soil are required, 
as in parts of Nyasaland, for one hut of a family of say five people, and a third of the 
land is tillable, 185 people per square mile could be supported. In many parts of East 
Africa the density probably exceeds this figure, but only in limited areas and usually 
in regions where there is little waste land. Only one country, Zanzibar, exceeds this 
rough figure, and there trade is also an important element in the support of the people. 
Kenya and Uganda have the densest population, based on total potential crop pro- 
ducing area; but even here the density is not great enough to cramp the Native 


372 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


for land to cultivate. There seems, therefore, no reason to suppose that population 
density in itself will force changes in the Native agriculture for some time. 


Taxation Demands a Money Crop 


Under natural conditions, the question of cash has not been important to the 
Native. He produced what food was required, traded produce for produce and had 
no great demands to meet other than those imposed by necessities of food and shelter 
and the demands of his chief. With European administration there comes the demand 
for cash. In all these sections head or hut tax is levied on the Natives. It is from 
5 to 15 shillings or one month’s labor in Uganda, from 2 to 9 shillings in Tanganyika, 
12 shillings in Kenya, 6 shillings in Nyasaland, 10 shillings in Northern Rhodesia, 5 to 
20 shillings in Portuguese East Africa and 28 shillings in Bechuanaland. It is usually 
doubled for each additional wife after the first. This tax often imposes a heavy 
responsibility on the Native. There are other administration taxes, poll tax, permits, 
dog tax, ete. The 16 million Natives of East Africa, excluding Ethiopia, contribute 
between 2 and 8 million pounds in taxes, or about 3 shillings per person, including 
women and children. Tanganyika, Nyasaland and Portuguese East Africa have 
apparently the lowest per capita tax, and Bechuanaland and Southern Rhodesia the 
highest (Table VI). 


TABLE VI 


Tax ON NATIVE POPULATION (@). 


Pounds sterling 


Pounds per square mile of Shillings per 

sterling. Agricultural Land. Inhabitant. 
LANNE 6 we Bo Hoo 9 0 6 — — — 
Keriyas ie aa et aha ne ee 508,850 (b) 9-1 4 
Upandatia-wien ay ics tae men 510,370 (c) 6-1 3 
Tanganyika een aes Beat Te Te 389,000 (b) 1:3 2 
VENA se og Gm la UG 424,465 (d) 615 (d) 43 (d) 
Nyasaland ee Da sie Bore ar 110,700 (e) 2-9 2 
Portuguese East Africa . . . 265,000 (f) 0-6 2 
Northern Rhodesia 9 <7 2) 2 95,000 (g) 0-3 2 
Southern Rhodesia... . . 395,403 (h) 2-9 16 
Bechuanaland (aie. sateen 35,000 (e) 0-2 5 

2,733,788 


(a) Data from reports of Major Hanns Vischer ; (b) hut tax and poll tax ; (c) poll tax and cotton 
tax; (d) total revenue; (e) hut tax; (f) head tax only (Manual, Port. East Africa, Admiralty 
Report) ; (g) Native tax only ; (h) total Native revenue. 


It is evident, therefore, that the demand on the Native made by the tax for 
administration is very considerable, in fact probably much greater than his previous 
total earnings. He must, therefore, seek a sale for his produce and grow a larger 
quantity or seek a market for his labor. It is this latter method to which the Native 
has turned largely in the past. Except where this takes him to European plantations, 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 373 


he is lost to agricultural production. The Native agriculturist is thus brought at 
once face to face with the problem of securing a money crop. Hides and skins can be 
sold and thus pastoral peoples have had to make little or no adjustment. But the 
crop producers are often far from the market and there may be little or no sale for the 
maize, cassava, sorghum, beans, potatoes or bananas on which they live. Those 
Natives who can market the crops which they are already growing need only extend 
the area of cultivation or increase the yield. But, unfortunately, produce often cannot 
be marketed. Thus, in the upper portion of Nyasaland and parts of Northern 
Rhodesia at the present time, the Native, although growing good crops, cannot sell 
anything to make up his hut tax. If he lives near the lake and has rice land, he ean 
sell rice, but maize, sorghum and even cotton are not saleable on account of cost of 
transport. As a result of this condition, large numbers of Natives have to leave 
Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia and go elsewhere to work to raise the hut tax. 
The problem of supplying the Native with a money crop is a serious one. Under the 
circumstances it would probably be better for the Native to conscript his labor than 
to demand a tax where there is no available means of earning it. Here it is a question 
quite aside from the matter of the amount of food production. It is a matter of 
searching out a crop which is marketable and which will become for the Native a 
money crop. The rate of taxation is low, but compared with the Natives’ actual 
earning capacity it is too high. The remedy is not to lower this tax but to secure a 
market for the produce the Native grows or give him a crop for which there is a market. 
He has plenty of crops which in most districts would be saleable, such as tobacco, 
maize, cassava, sorghum and even wheat and cotton, but the market is too far distant. 
In his natural state the Native here could be perfectly happy, but the tax forces on him 
the extra work and he cannot secure direct or indirect employment without traveling 
far from his home. The effect of this condition on the whole social system is bad. 
If the market were available, then this condition would effect agricultural production. 
The acreage would be increased and the surplus sold and new money crops, such as 
cotton, coffee or tea, would be grown. It seems to be primarily a question of cheaper 
transportation. 


Education Means Increased Demands on Agriculture 


While we may educate the Native to enable him to meet these complex and 
new conditions, we thereby increase his demand for cash. Schools must be supported. 
With them come the demands for books, clothing and invariably more expensive 
living. The simple Native is being pushed gradually into the present economic 
world and the increased cost of living will press upon him in increasing degree. This 
will either force him to more extensive or more intensive production, or drive him from 
the land to the European plantation, workshop or town. However well his education 
may be planned he will have to increase his earnings. To do this on the land will 
probably be far better for his future, or the future of his tribe and race, than for him 
to push off to towns or foreign countries. But he cannot remain on the land with the 
increasing demands unless he makes rather sweeping adjustments to the changed 


B74. EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


conditions. His education must then enable him to meet in a practical way this 
changing condition. This can best be done by the proper system of agricultural 
education. 


Effect of Native Reserves 

The whole system of Native agriculture is based on the ability of nature to take 
care of abandoned land, free it of insect, fungi and bacterial diseases, and restore its 
fertility and physical condition. When land is denuded and abandoned a process of 
revegetation is begun at once by nature and the land passes rapidly back to grass, 
brush or forest, as the case may be. The time for regeneration of the original type 
of vegetation varies in different climates and on different soils, and ranges from a few 
years to several hundred. There is little doubt, however, that the areas are gradually 
improved as a habitat for plant growth as this process goes on. In many cases in 
Central Africa the revegetation is not allowed to again become complete. In the high 
countries the forests are not allowed time enough to become fully reestablished, but 
the brushland which precedes the final stage is put into crops. It is evident that 
if this method is to be employed the acreage available to each Native should be 
relatively large. In parts of Nyasaland eight acres are supposed to be sufficient for 
each hut. Probably not much over an acre is cultivated at a time. Estimates 
based on acreage per Native inhabitant in Southern Rhodesia and Uganda would 
indicate about one acre to each Native. This rather high acreage is probably largely 
due to the stimulus to Native production, which has been very great in Uganda, and to 
the rather extensive type of field practice in a drier country such as Southern Rhodesia. 
It is doubtful if anywhere near an acre is cultivated for each man, woman and child 
in the more primitive portion of Central Africa. If one acre were cultivated at a time 
for three years, the land would lie fallow over twenty years between croppings. If 
the acreage were increased to two it would mean a ten-year rest period, while tu 
cultivate four acres would give only three years of fallow. 

If, however, the Natives are restricted to reserves where land is not sufficient 
for this method of alternate cultivation and fallow, then the Native confronts the 
two situations most difficult of solution in all our modern agriculture: (1) How to 
keep the land and the plants free from disease ; and (2) how to maintain the fertility 
and physical condition of land continually under cultivation. It must also be 
remembered that there is no winter rest period, and that except when drought 
periods occur the land is kept in practically continuous cultivation until abandoned. 
It is scarcely reasonable to suppose that the method of continuous cultivation of one 
tract of land can be forced on the Native with no advice or with only the advice of those 
not schooled in modern methods of fighting disease and maintaining soil productivity. 
Such men are difficult to secure, and yet this system should presuppose the willingness 
on the part of the Government to provide the Native with the best help science can 
give. 

It is quite evident, however (see Table VII), that there is still a sufficient acreage 
available to each hut to make the establishment of a system of continuous cultivation 


Or 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 37 


TABLE VII 


AREA, NATIVE POPULATION AND DENSITY (a). 
Population per 





Area in Native Population square mile of 
Country. square Popula- per square Land capable of 
miles. tion. mile. crop production. 
Rittiogia® Aan iid ic. )6 He As as0000 6,000,000 (b) 17 30 
PEI te oe Es) Sisal gs ks" 2 e's) Cet eee DOD 2,333,000 11 42 
AI GANS Mies Sst v0.» 5) Tease ae, on or O4 OOO: 3,126,000 33 37 
MONPAUYIKG fh eee, t 2865,000 4,107,000 11 14 
Zanzibar ereeE 2 3. LeReee steer, stron 120 197,000 193 286 
Nyasaland © hss) iss.) 152) a fait 87.900 1,186,000 31 31 
Portuguese East Africa eee anrt28:000 3,000,000 ti "i 
Northern Rhodesia Wee Ge eek 2912000 928,000 3 3 
Southern Rhodesia. . . . . . 149,000 770,000 5 6 
Bechuanaland... °¢. = - 2+). «| 275,000 151,000 0:5 0:9 
Totalgy a ta Bae. oe 9:199,920 21,798,000 10 13 


(a) Data mostly from Statesman’s Yearbook, 1924, with correction for change of land area in 
accordance with recent concession. 

(b) Estimated (Kneyclopedia Britannica gives 3-5 to 5 million, and Statesman’s Yearbook 
10 million). 


at this time unnecessary. The reserves are in many cases intended to insure the 
Native ample space for his type of life. Still the point is quite generally urged, that 
the Native should stay on one piece of land and learn to cultivate it continuously. 
The ideal may be good, but it may require several generations before it can become 
practical. To force the method now would assuredly subject the Native to the 
greatest insecurity, both as to money crops and food crops, and place on the European 
administration a burden which they would find extremely difficult to carry 
satisfactorily. 


Tue NECcEssITy OF EDUCATION IF THE NATIVE IS TO Hotp His PLACE ON THE LAND 


If the Native is to hold his place in the world, if he is to hold his land and his 
right to farm it, he must meet the economic pressure of the outside world. He is no 
longer isolated, and it is doubtful if he can be protected from exploitation or economic 
slavery unless he can account in production for the land he occupies. If populations 
increase, great areas of land capable of intensive production cannot be continued as 
they are at present in a relatively unproductive state. It seems necessary, therefore, 
to start a system of education which will enable the Native to advance with the 
demands, if he is to remain more or less an independent producer. He must adapt 
his production to world needs and make himself a contributor of raw material wanted 
by the industrial world or give way to other people who are willing and anxious to 
take his place. This, of course, is not to be expected immediately, but when one con- 
siders the low plane from which the Native must start the process of education cannot 
be adopted too soon to meet the emergency. 


376 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


Wuat SHOULD CONSTITUTE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 


It is fairly well recognized that agriculture should be the basis in the establishment 
of an educational system among primitive agricultural people. But it is much more 
difficult to state what should constitute the agricultural education. As an artist, 
the Native is now an excellent agriculturist in many ways. For the most part, he 
does not need to be told how to prepare his land or when and what to plant. He does 
not approach the subject from the standpoint of the city man, who must have prac- 
tical demonstration on how to use the hoe. What he lacks is the whole groundwork 
of natural science. While the natural phenomena are familiar to him, they are not 
understood as natural phenomena. Everything is done with dogma and superstition 
as the only guide. Our own agriculture is hardly yet free from some of these things, 
but the Native agriculture has nothing else. Fortunately many of the dogmas are 
right, if he has been long on the land, but with changing conditions neither dogmas 
nor superstitions are of value. They are the greatest hindrances. They bind the 
Native to methods which cannot endure when changes are forced upon him. Scientific 
reasons, which can often easily be found, must be substituted for these very dogmas. 
A careful study of the Native dogmas and prejudices may lead to the discovery of 
the truths underlying them. 

The first suggestion which comes to mind in connection with Native agriculture is 
that of demonstration work, of actually showing him how he can secure better results. 
Still, this method may fail, for with nothing but superstition behind him he merely 
attributes your good results to “‘ white man’s magic ”’ and has failed to be convinced. 
It would seem, therefore, that if we are to make of the African an intelligent and 
resourceful agriculturist, and this is not too much to expect when one considers the 
many contrivances that he has devised in the past, we must begin with a type of 
nature study which is free of the superficiality and sentimentality which attach 
to the use of that expression in our country and seek to open the eyes of the Native 
to the natural laws which determine all happenings about him. We need not plunge 
at once into practical agriculture, but should always have this as our aim. The 
simple principles of mechanics and physics, the simple facts of chemistry, of which 
he knows nothing as such but which he employs constantly in his everyday life, 
lead to explanations of the simple phenomena in nature. The curiosity of the Native 
may enable the teacher to lead him along rather rapidly in elementary biology, 
avoiding the abstract and confining the attention to the concrete everyday happenings. 
This will pave the way for hygiene and create, if suitable books are available, a 
demand for knowledge of reading and writing. Agriculture as the Native must 
develop it, adapting himself to new crops and intensive methods, cannot be treated 
as an art directed by dogma, but must be accepted as a science, governed by natural 
law and affected by every change in natural conditions and economic demand. 
The ideas which the European child acquires almost without study of the relation 
of cause to effect are new to the Native. These simple scientific facts must be made 
the basis of an appreciation of the naturalness of things which will make him adaptable 
and will enable him to grasp something of the spirit of modern thought. Without 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 377 


this he will carry into our religion all his beliefs in gods and spirits and only give 
them new names; not changing his viewpoint and beliefs in regard to agriculture, 
nature or life. 

When the Natives’ agricultural methods have been studied and once understood 
there should appear a wealth of illustration of the application of the simple facts of 
nature to their needs. And with this knowledge it should also be possible to bring 
into the teaching the fundamentals of scientific European agriculture. When once 
the Native appreciates the fact that there is cause and effect and that he can influence 
the natural results, he can then be led rapidly to better methods and a better under- 
standing of his old methods. At present it would be all but impossible to write an 
elementary book on science for the Native without knowing in a very intimate way his 
background, and it would be equally difficult to produce a text suitable for his use in 
agriculture without an intimate knowledge of his methods and reasons for pursuing 
these methods. The best results in this direction might well be expected by a co- 
operative effort on the part of a man who knows and respects the Natives’ work and 
another who is schooled in modern scientific agriculture. It would seem very un- 
desirable to base an agricultural course on the curriculum of any European or American 
school. It seems almost unnecessary to say that any adequate system of education 
should concern itself first with the women, for they are the agriculturists. The men 
should also be given a place in this system, but one that will gradually broaden their 
field of work by leading through new crops to the cultivation of the fields. 

While this more extended process of education is being undertaken we can help 
the Native by giving him better seed, better stock, and in some cases helping him to 
avoid plant diseases. Cassava, especially, is becoming badly infected with mosaic. 
This will ultimately ruin the crop for the Native if he cannot be required to plant only 
clean canes or be instructed to do so. In many of the areas, half to two-thirds of the 
plants are diseased and can produce little or no crop. When new land is planted only 
canes from healthy plants should be used, and it should be comparatively easy to over- 
come this trouble. This is only one of a number of cases which may be found in 
almost every Native community. 


THE AGRICULTURAL POTENTIALITY OF East AFRICA 


It is evident that the production of agricultural export at the present time gives no 
adequate indication of what may be produced a quarter of a century hence. European 
agriculture does not amount to more than about one million acres of crop-producing 
land, and, with few exceptions, the Natives have not yet found it desirable or necessary 
to produce more than enough for their own consumption. Even with the present 
tax, amounting to approximately three million pounds sterling, a large amount of 
farm produce could be exported if a ready market could be secured for the Native 
crops. ‘The Native has developed one phase of his agriculture to a rather wonderful 
degree. He produces food which can be stored for use in drought periods or, if he 
lives in a region of almost continuous production, varies the time of planting and 
mixes his crops in such a way as to have a continuous supply of fresh food available 


378 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


at all times (Figs. 1-5). With the coming of the white man and the levying of head or 
hut tax, he must have a money crop. In case of pastoral tribes, the hides, skins and 
gee, or even the meat of the animals, produce the required cash. In many cases the 
food crop may also serve as a money crop and the excess be sold, but it is often not 
possible to sell the food crop and it may not bring a sufficient price. It is necessary 
then to have money crops. From the standpoint of world need, almost any of the 
Native crops may be used. Cereals, as world populations increase and we begin 
to draw more heavily on tropical regions, are almost sure to be needed in Europe and 
possibly in America as well. Of these, the most valuable will probably be maize, with 
sorghum, eleusine and pennisetum in less demand. Oil crops, such as groundnuts 
and simsim, should always find a ready world market. Cotton will be needed in 
increasing amounts, and this increase will have to come largely from regions other than 
the United States, India and Egypt. Much of East Africa can be developed into 
cotton producing country. From the estimates here given, although based on rather 
scanty knowledge of the type of natural vegetation and climate, and based on a pro- 
portion which seems extremely conservative—that of 10 per cent. of the area clim- 
atically suited being developed into cotton producing land—the total production 
might easily reach 90 million acres. The present production in the United States is 
34 million acres. If we combine the area suitable to cool climate crops and warm 
climate crops, the area physically available for crops is about equal to that in the 
United States. 

This comparison gives only the potentiality and requires for its realization the 
enlightenment of millions of Native Africans. Under the tax system, however, they 
are forced to raise money, and the rapidity of the development of Native cotton growing 
in Uganda is an indication that it may be developed in other sections. As with our 
farmers, great caution should be exercised in counseling or permitting the Native to 
divert too great a proportion of his energy to the money crop and thus subject 
his people to the increased danger of poor markets and famine. But cotton is by no 
means the only crop which can become of importance as an export. Along the coast 
coconut, and in Zanzibar and Pemba coconut and cloves, are extremely important from 
the standpoint of world production. Cloves will probably not be greatly increased, 
although coconut plantations may still be extended on the mainland. Coffee seems 
also adapted as a money crop in the hands of the more intelligent upland Native 
and may, in favorable locations, be extended in the lowlands. In Ethiopia, Uganda 
and Tanganyika, especially about Bukoba and Moshi, it is already an important 
crop for export, and the area may be enormously extended. In Nyasaland and Kenya, 
up to the present time, the Native has not produced coffee. Over all the warmer area 
where maize, sorghum and groundnuts are produced, cassava has proven one of the 
most reliable Native crops. In certain regions there is a good sale for cassava flour, 
and there seems every reason to suppose that as cereal production in temperate 
regions becomes inadequate to meet the demands of increasing populations cassava 
flour may find a market. It would prove an excellent Native industry, one already 
quite extensively developed along the eastern shore of Tanganyika. One factor that 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 379 


should be considered is that while Uganda and Kenya are quite densely inhabited, 
Tanganyika, Portuguese East Africa and the Rhodesias have a relatively sparse popu- 
lation, Southern Rhodesia is the only one of these which is avowedly a white man’s 
country, although the ratio of 30 thousand white men to 900 thousand Natives is 
disproportionate. This is a region still offering great opportunities for white expan- 
sion and increase without encroaching on the Native to any very pronounced extent. 
Here we may expect the European type of agriculture to give the greatest returns. 
At present it consists largely of maize and cattle. Aside from this Colony, the mass 
production should come from the Natives. Although it is probable that the Natives 
will increase in numbers until the land is all comfortably occupied, it is very improbable 
that industries will develop, and we may look forward to this whole area becoming 
ultimately a great agricultural country, furnishing from its excess food for industrial 
Europe and America. There are many opportunities for developing specialized areas. 
Bananas may become important as export, either fresh with improved transport or in 
some manufactured form. Forest plantings, citrus, tea, and tropical fruits such as 
mangoes of excellent quality and great quantity, can be produced in East Africa. 
The rapid expansion of the readily available supplies of petrol may create a demand 
for alcohol manufactured from the cereals, cassava, sugar cane and bananas of Africa, 
and a similar shortage of heavy lubricating oils increase the demand for castor oil, 
which is now produced throughout the whole of East Africa by the Natives for their 
own personal use. The limiting factor is not natural potentialities, but the backward 
character of the Native people, world markets and transport. 

In order to present a clearer picture of the potentialities of East Africa, we may 
employ an indirect method of land classification. The natural vegetation, if properly 
interpreted, indicates not only the type of agriculture which can be developed but also 
something of the productivity of the land. If, then, the distribution of the vegetation 
types were known, we could estimate from them the amount of area suitable for 
different crops. In Table VIII is summarized the areas occupied by different 
vegetation types, and these, in turn, interpreted in terms of grazing land, warm 
climate and cool climate crop land. 


ETHIOPIA 


This country has long been known to the explorer, and excellent accounts from 
the standpoint of the traveler are available, ranging from Poncet in 1607 to Rey 
in 1923. It is at present entirely free of European domination. Statistical data is 
entirely lacking, and the population is given in such authoritative sources as the 
Encyclopedia Britannica and Statesman’s Yearbook as from 3°5 to 10 million. This 
is equivalent to stating that we know practically nothing of its population 
density. 

Place of Agriculture.—Ethiopia is more nearly self-supporting than any civilized 
country. The food of the people and their clothing are produced locally. Agriculture 
is the one outstanding industry. On the land not capable of crop production, grazing 
is the only industry. Hunting is not an important phase of the life of any Ethiopian 


EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


380 






















































Ue aU ae &UL sal | ceili ail ah Cee ovey wi a Gite dit aane 
SS 3 3 3 3 laa = == "fs + qnits 419sep 410g 
og a 0S o¢ = 0S = am 0g a o¢ ‘  * + pueysseis ulequnoyy 
= 8% 83 8 8% — — + — = te * BUVATS SSBIS JIOSOp-vIvOV 
SOT er 18 SOT = sot = —= €9T s9T = €9T * * BUBARS SSBIS [[BI-BPvOy 
= 98 98 98 98 == 98 a = = a 98 Ake US See aah aOIOT UIOU TL 
GL ae = cL — GL GL am GL GL ae GL as aS ne i) ee a 
9 = = at = — = 9 9 _ 9 9 *qso10J Uler oyvIOd May, 
ra ae: ps ae, = = zoe 7 - - —_ f * + *  qgaroy Ulex eotdory, 
ane it = a == <= | — qt —_ —_ _ T * ¢ * * ggeIOJ SAOIZUBIY 
VXIANVONVL 
#8 OL Lg 3&6 OL 28 & a $8 #9 0G 46 syeqOL, 
6. = 61 6T = 61 = <= 61 => 61 61 *  * + purl ssvis ureyunoy 
se) OT OL OL OT Sa — — — = => Ot * RUBARS SSBIZ J1OSOP-BLBOy 
ras =< 8 LT = LT Ba: cy Lt LT = LT * BUVAS SsBIs [[eI-BlROy 
&P a a SF = SF = —- SF &F ae SP * BUBATS 9014 MOT SSRIS UST 
be aes — $ se & S meas € € = g eee st eto sOE AKT, 
T a == = a —- KZ LE L = is ye + +  *qsar0y urer oqviodway, 
T ae — = Fao a mz T i T — T * + +  qsaroy urer peodory, 
VaNVOD 
9¢ ST FLT C61 SST SP 9T FL 9¢ 68 LT 602 s[eqoL, 
fag OF OF OF OF cae atc ad Saal = ase oF * —- gsBId JIOSOP-qnIYs 4.1989(T 
a a g g == S = = G — g g ‘+ + puBissels UreyuNnOW 
ae +6 F6 $6 $6 = a = =a a = 6 * BURARS SSVID J1IOSOP-BIDvOV 
tS = LT FE — ¥§ = = HS tS — SE > + BUBARS SSBIZ [[e]-VIOROy 
ma SL SL OL SL = as = = = —= SL a 4soi0y} U1OU TL, 
¥ = oe ¥ — p ¥ = ¥ F = ¥? sees. eR ASSLOP ATCT 
as Ty = — = — aa GL as Sie 6L SL gh *qso10j Uler oyeIoduIaT, 
T wi a maui ae =F = t T if = T + + +  gsozoy ures eoldory, 
aa ih a — —< a = v = = = T * 5 © * qggar0y OAOIZULIT 
VANGY 

261 ST 6G LZE ST FLT LE £Z L461 8g 68ST oss *  sTeqoL 

Vee &% 3% 3% £36 = a = ae — I &% * - gsei8 4rosep-qniys yr10saqT 
= EG cso cS YG a GB = = a ca cS oe) 58) Se) © 2) gg0 107, WIONT, 
ae SOT cot cot Sot ae =e = = — = cot * BUBARS SSVIZ YIBSEP-vINvI VY 
OTT — 9Tt OIL — 9TT an = 9Tt = OTT 9IL ae *- puvjsseis upeyuno, 
9F = &% oF == oF == — oF oF = OF + * BUBARS SSBIZ [[e}-eIOvOV 
oL = = rai = rae rae = SL rai =< aL oP voles Hie) (ae ggar0y ASC. 
&3 =~ = a ie as = $3 83 = £3 &% + © — qsaa0y ules ogvred way, 

VIdOIHLA 
‘aqyqvo | deoys puv | “Ajloedeo | “Aqfoudvo “sdox0 toe 
‘uorjonp | ‘worjonp 10} 8}ye08 10}| Butdqivo | BulArIvo | “4Se10F *[eq0L, IoyyeOM IoyyeVoM *so[TUL 
-o1d doro | -o1d doxo | 9[qeq3Ing eqeyimng -MO'T -ystH «|: uedo pus “48010, WIT A tooo *bs 000‘T *morye3030A4 Jo dA, 
jo 9[qe_ | yo a1qudvo puvlpoo A Ul vorR pue Arjunop 
-dvo puvy | -uy puvy pozeUllyse 
*puey sulzein jo woTyonporg Jo ojqudup pueT 


























zAGNvV] AO AS) IVILNALOG GNV NOILVIASTA TVUOLVN 


WIA Wav 


381 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 


CEZ6T ‘ET ‘ON Safieg “soy ‘20g “Zoey “IoUy) 


“qnqieyy pue zyueyg Aq ‘wou fo snog puy uornjeba4 uo SaBav] peseq » 





069° 

















Tis S81 GELS SOF 
OOT G23 SLE 66 
€L OL 6FT €L 
OL 6 083 = 
g 90T CoP =| 
SF 13 Lg nr 
0880 046°0 016°0 Tea, 
49 L461 $9 99 
OL Le a or 
€ST PLT S6T SST 
€ST 63 LEE €ST 
OOT G13 E16 66 
T T I! = 
& € & & 
93 9% 96 96 
= 6s 6g ~ 
OL 0L OL OL 
a SGT S61 - 
€1 OL 6FT SI 
= GS FOL 55 
€I €1 tas tas 
OL 6 08Z a 
OL ae OL = 
—— aes 193 ae 
g 90T GCF re 
P wet ¥ a 
= FOL 803 “F3 
ai a 802 a 
I ee = a 
al 16 Lg Ss 
oa ST Ts ry 
08s OL6 OL6 = 
008 OOF OOF co 
O€ re = — 
aor OLS ay 























6E9'T F9L 
| a OT 8L 
981 OF 
082 19% 
BGP 803 
1g OL 
046°0 _— 
883 iaae 
8 g 
&F 91 
FLT 1g 
911 8L 
iE — 
— 9% 
2g rae 
E21 — 
i] 
9ST OF 
¢c -_ 
FOL — 
== eI 
1% 13 
082 193 
OL — 
9 — 
+S — 
193 193 
CBF 802 
¥ — 
G — 
80% — 
808 802 
1g OL 
9 — 
1g or 
0L6 -— 
00F -- 
oLg ~~ 





ri 











689'T 608 I 6UE 
LT = => 
9st 96 OF 
183 $93 LI 
SSF LIF 9 
8s $3 +1 
069°0 069°0 = 
863 SVS 9¢ 
$8 #9 02 
9¢ 6S LI 
L61 gg 6EL 
LT =. = 
rae = —— 
€3T = = 
9ET 96 OF 
g com ¢ 
FOL 69 cE 
143 13 — 
18Z $9Z ja 
9 a 9 
$ $ == 
193 19Z a 
IL <= IL 
S6F LIt 9 
3S aan 3S 
80Z 803 — 
80% 803 = 
¥ = F 
18 T = 
88 ¥Z tI 
9 = 9 
1g #3 L 
I = T 
069 069 == 
0OT oor aS 
OL¢ 0L¢ =a 
03 03 a 











ots 


0026 


$1890, 


* puvjeurnyoog 


"  * eisapoyyy ueyyION 

SONTV qsvgy esansn}og 

5 puvyeses 

Ivqizuvz 

*  vylAueduyy, 

pe epuesyy) 

. . . . . vaAuoy 

se OS vidoryya 
AUVAWNS 

“$1890, 


co SS a" SSuI a UsIeNy 
*  *  * qniys 4Iesep 4[Vg 





*  *  4qsa10j WOU, 

a Se So ZOy AAT 

VUBAUS SSVID JIISIP-UvINBIY 

* * BUGAUS SSVID [[b]-vIBOy 
ANVIVNVOHOUE 


S[eqOL 
Sct ee, eSSULD IT. 


* BULARS SSEID T[vy-V—OWY 
3 qse10y WIOyL 


5 ogee Se © qsoroy AIC 
“YISadoHa NUWHLAOS 
*  s[BqoL 
“ ° * SsEvId YsIByy 


puv[sseis uleqUnoy, 

: vULAUS ssvIs 1l8}-e1Dvy 

: * qsoroy Aq. 

jso10} Ulel oyviodwey, 
VISHqoHe NUYWHLUON 


8[840., 

SSVI YSIV]T 
ee eee: SSUID [RL 
2 vue AUS SSVID ][e4- ulovwoy 
; * gsotos AIC 


*4s010J Ulel oyersdwey, 
qsoi0y ures peordory, 
4SolOJ OAOIDURIL 


lige ai: 
VOIudv “a AsTAyALWOd 


S[BIOL 


puLvyssvis UrequNoOW;, 
* VUBAVS SSBID 1[C}-vlBOy 
| *  * *qsetoy ule oyesodwag, 
CQNVIVSVAN 


[8 YO, 


[Jos MoT[VYys 10 AYoyy 
"  * *  gsetos oAOB URL 





* BUBAES SSVID [[04-vlovOy 
< 4se0J Uped peotdory, 
(Sor 


aisnbg uy puel) Wvaignwe 


382 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


people, the greatest dependence being placed in the desert portions of this country 
on domestic animals. Camels, goats, sheep, cattle and chickens are most important. 

Grazing Lands.—There is an area of approximately 153 thousand square miles 
where climatic conditions are not favorable to crop production, where crops must be 
limited to irrigated bottom lands or temporarily flooded lands, and where natural 
forage for domestic animals constitutes the basis on which the Native population 
subsists. 

Here the Somali people are scattered very thinly over an extensive country. 
They produce skins, hides and gee for export, and consume very little of the produce 
of the outside world. They live a care-free life in the open. This is probably the 
type of agriculture best suited to this kind of country, and the population density 
must always be low. Overstocking the country may almost permanently reduce 
the carrying capacity of the range and result in the death of the herds during bad 
years and later in famine for the Native. 

This type of country should remain a live stock country, for no crop equal in 
value to the Native grasses can be produced by cultivation. 

If the education of these people should be attempted, it should look to the better- 
ment of the animal industry, for their knowledge of how to handle and care for live 
stock, although probably very great, is likewise based largely on superstition. 
From the standpoint of modern agricultural practice, the greatest increase in produc- 
tion may come from improved breeds of live stock. But it should not be assumed 
that any desirable breed could be brought in to replace that already there. The native 
animals, like the people, have developed under the particular condition of climate, 
food supply and methods of management, and a new breed might fail entirely. Here 
as elsewhere attempts to improve the Native agriculture should be based, first, on a 
thorough understanding of Native methods. We should first know the native 
animal, its points of strength and its weaknesses, before attempting to replace it or 
improve it. If desirable to change the breed, this may be rapidly accomplished by 
the importation of suitable bulls. 

The density of population in an area such as this, if it remains pastoral and does 
not develop industrially, which latter seems very unlikely, will always be low. It 
could be increased slightly if the Native would produce forage during the best years 
for use during the poor years. With no storage of forage, the number of domestic 
animals and the population are determined by the poor years. With the storage of 
forage grown during the best years it might be possible to raise the population to a 
condition of balance with the average year instead of the poorest. In the western 
United States, the accumulation of feed, or of capital since food and forage can often 
be purchased, has enabled the ranchers to hold live stock over when without such 
reserves the herds would have died. 

This region, although it can never support a heavy population, may with in- 
creasing world demands become relatively important. Its present products, gum, 
hides and skins, cannot be produced in centers of dense population. Grazing lands 
of high carrying capacity will probably ultimately be demanded as crop producing 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 383 


areas, and the only land left exclusively to the production of sheep and cattle will be 
the grazing lands of low carrying capacity which lie in the arid and semi-arid regions, 
Such lands will continue as the homes of the pastoral peoples, for the reason that they 
cannot produce crop plants without irrigation. In Ethiopia land of this type occupies 
much of the eastern and southern portions (sce Fig. 1). It would not seem extreme 
to estimate the carrying 

capacity of this great ;- cs 
block of grazing land at 
about 3 million cattle. 

It would be impos- 
sible to fix these Natives 
on definite reserves or to 
stop entirely their no- 
madic habits, which are 
in part the response of 
the people to the uncer- ; 
tainty of rain and the 





a 









ABYSSINIA 
y YYyn C/E GRAZING ONLY 
4 J >, 
Miijde, SS Cook Cimare Crops 


yy Yi Ys A [UMN eee Crstare C3roeps 
Mp, , : 


resulting forage for their 
live stock. Even in such 
highly developed regions 
as the American deserts, 
the Karroe and_ the 
Karroid plateau in South 
Africa, live stock is 
moved from place to Fic. 1. 

place to avoid droughts. 

With a scattered nomadic people agricultural education would be difficult ; but 
if attempted, should concern itself largely with the care and health of the grazing 
animals and of the people themselves. 

Lands Capable of Crop Production.—Turning now to land which reccives sufficient 
rain to justify cultivation, we find an area of about 197 thousand square miles, or 
more than half of the total land surface (see Fig. 1). Of this area, 70 per cent., 
or 139 thousand square miles, lie at an altitude where the climate is temperate and 
where temperate crops can be grown ; and 58 thousand square miles, or about 30 per 
cent., on lower lands having higher temperature and capable of producing warm 
climate crops such as cotton. : 

Land Capable of Producing Warm Climate Crops.—Land of this type lies off the 
great plateau and forms a broad belt on the west, a narrow belt on the east and 
extensive areas in south and east Ethiopia. The land lies, for the most part, at a 
low elevation and has a warmer climate and unequally distributed rainfall. Droughts 
are more severe than in the highlands. The natural plant growth consists, for the 
main part, of rank rich grasses and scattered open forests. This area is excellent 
grazing land, but with increasing population grazing must give way gradually to 






MY, ; Mfg Yi Z Yy ff 
LY? 
A) LiL KZ Liha 





384 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


crop production. Here dense populations can be supported by agriculture. The 
Native African finds the climate suited to those crops which are best adapted to his 
requirements, such as kaffir corn, sweet potatoes, garden vegetables of all kinds and 
cotton. 

The most important crop is undoubtedly the durro or grain sorghum, the chief 
food of the Natives. In fact where it is grown extensively few other grain crops can 
compete with it. Most of the clothing worn in Ethiopia is woven by hand from 
cotton grown in this belt. Cotton should do especially well over much of the area, 
and with demand from the outside and encouragement within it is not unreasonable 
to estimate the area which might well be devoted to cotton without interference with 
the production of sufficient sorghum and other food crops as 3 million acres. 

Land Capable of Producing Cool Climate Crops.—In the region of temperate agri- 
culture, on the other hand, the grain sorghums do not occupy a prominent place. 
Here they give way to such crops as wheat, teff, barley and chickpea. In many places 
fruits do well, although they have not been grown extensively by the Ethiopians. 
In this section forage of Native grasses constitutes one of the productive elements 
of the country. The grasses are not as rank and coarse as in the warmer regions, 
and they have a greater forage value. Large herds of cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, 
goats and sheep feed on them throughout the year. Hay is cut and sold in the 
markets. Teffis one of the chief bread cereals. In places the fields of grain are almost 
continuous. This is especially true of the higher land, where barley and wheat are 
probably the most prominent crops. In certain portions of the highland the ensete, 
a banana cultivated for its roots, constitutes an important food crop. 

The list of crops produced in the highland region of Ethiopia includes practically 
all the temperate crops grown in America. There are highlands where frost plays 
a part in limiting crop production. At somewhat lower elevations the banana and ~ 
coffee® do well. Coffee is one of the chief export crops. The area of land planted 
each year with the cereals such as barley, wheat, oats and teff must be very large 
and may equal 5 to 8 million acres. 

In agricultural] methods the Ethiopian is considerably in advance of the other 
Native Africans considered in this Report. He has advanced beyond the hoe stage 
of agriculture and has developed larger fields by the use of cattle and the plow. 
The Ethiopian plow is a primitive wooden instrument sometimes provided with a 
metal point and is drawn by two oxen. The land is plowed once, the seed scattered 
and plowed again. This completes the planting. The surface is left rough, thus 
providing an excellent surface for the absorption of rainfall. It is doubtful if with 
European plows the land could be so easily prepared and if it would be left in any 
better condition for the crop. 

In dry and stony land, where a European plow would be practically useless, 
the primitive implement does especially well. The fields seem fairly well cared for, 
and on the whole the impression is that while the people have not reached the stage 
of intensive production, they do as well as their economic state and condition of life 
justify. Ifa European type of education were attempted among these people, they 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 385 


could develop temperate and sub-tropical gardens. They could improve the domestic 
animals and diversify or improve crop production. This is not necessary at present, 
but one may look to the gradual increase in production as demands increase. 

Forests.—Only a very rough estimate can be made of the forests of Ethiopia. 
They were probably much more extensive at one time than now. There seems 
to be less than 7 per cent. of the area in timber. Even now wood is one of the difficult 
things to procure in much of Ethiopia. There is probably an equal or even greater 
area of scattered deciduous forest of small trees. On the whole, however, the country 
is deficient in forest and from it can be expected very little in the way of export. 

Summary.—Ethiopia has about 139 thousand square miles of country climatically 
capable of producing any of our temperate cereals and in addition to these teff, an 
excellent bread cereal, used only for forage outside Ethiopia. There are probably, 
at the present time, from 2 to 8 million acres of cereals produced. Coffee, a native 
crop, does well and the production could be enormously increased. About 58 thousand 
square miles should have areas admirably adapted to the production of sorghum, 
maize and cotton. In this area it is possible that, with outside demand and encourage- 
ment from within, 3 million acres might easily be devoted to cotton. 


Krnya COLONY AND PROTECTORATE 


This is probably the best known Colony of all East Africa and one of the 
most difficult to generalize, because great variation in temperature and rainfall, 
the result of physiographic changes, occurs within a few miles. The highlands are 
separated by the great Rift Valley, and the areas of warm and hot country often lie 
but a few miles apart. Of the agriculture of Kenya we have a clearer picture than 
of any other Central African Colony except Uganda, due to the agricultural census 
which has been compiled regularly for the last few years by the Agricultural Depart- 
ment. If this could be supplemented with accurate distribution maps, the picture 
would take on much more definite form. 

Grazing Land Only.—Kenya has a very large area of semi-arid or desert land, 
even after the Jubaland concession is eliminated. The estimates based on 
vegetation distribution would show 152 thousand square miles of this type. Much 
of the land is very sparsely inhabited and part, at least, carries very few domestic 
grazing animals. This is probably partly due to the immense herds of herbivora 
and their associated carnivora which occupy this area. To introduce cattle would 
require the destruction of the larger carnivora and possibly ultimately the wild 
herbivora. Country of this type would make excellent reserves for wild game, but 
comparatively little of the desert land has been reserved. Ample reserves have been 
secured in the more fertile Athi plain. About 3 million cattle could be grazed 
on this desert area, if it ever becomes necessary or desirable to replace the wild herds 
with domestic animals. These herds of wild animals are one of the important assets 
of the Colony, since hunters from all parts of the world flock to this region and con- 
tribute large sums in license fees and duties. 

In parts of this area, and in fact over much of it, there are nomadic pastoral 


386 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


people who live with their herds of cattle, goats, sheep and camels and represent 
in a primitive way the best type of agriculture possible on land of this kind. 

Land Suitable for Warm Climate Crops.—Much of the low, hot country in Kenya 
is suitable for grazing only. There are, however, large areas of land with rainfall 
adequate to crop production and with a climate warm enough for such crops as cotton, 
sorghum, peanut, sweet potato and cassava (see Fig. 2). Within this belt, along the 
coast, the coconut is of the greatest im- 
portance. Here maize and cassava are 
the best planted crops and contribute 
much of the food supply and something 
for export. Farther inland maize is still 
the most important crop, although from 
the Native point of view sorghum, pea- 
nuts and cassava are of equal or even 
greater value in places. Cotton can be 
grown on much of this area, and with 
time and favorable prices Kenya could 
develop probably a million and a half 










Uj 






WZ 


KENYA < Gs acres of cotton without interfering with 
OPP: Up bgipeses . 
Wf, GRAZING ONLY UYLy aii the food crops. In this area, where 





water is sufficient, there is excellent 
chance of producing sugar cane, and here 
Fic. 2. also sisal is a present reality and future 
potentiality. At the present time much 

of this land is occupied by the Masai and other Native Reserves. 

Land Suitable for Temperate Climate Crops.—The highlands of Kenya have a 
climate adapted to some extent to temperate and tropical plants alike (see Fig. 2). 
The lands are frost free, and such diverse crops as wheat and flax, bananas and Arabian 
coffee, do exceptionally well. Here are areas suitable to intensive production, and 
over much of the area at the present time crops of value for export are grown. The 
total area, roughly estimated, of this type of country is 17 thousand square miles, 
and the density of population over much of it is as great as is usually found in East 
Africa. The Native tribes in this section do not produce coffee, but maize and some 
of the other food crops are sold. European plantations in this area produce chiefly 
coffee, wheat, maize, flax and sisal. Here the Natives have developed an intensive 
type of agriculture. On the rich sides of the hills and mountains they plant such 
crops as eleusine, pennisetum, sorghum, maize, bananas and yams; and on the 
alluvial bottoms sugar cane. Native agriculture is dependent entirely on the hoe, 
and this enables the Natives to occupy the fertile mountain sides, where the land is 
often far more productive than on the more level areas. 

In Kenya about 4 million acres have been bought by the white man, and some of 
it is in large holdings. Much of this is in the highland areas, and here European 
agriculture has advanced farther than in any other portion of Kast Africa. Ignoring 


WY 
SSS 6004 CL/AIATE CROPS Zi 


IW) 44047 CLIMATE CROPS 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 387 


for the present the Native Reserve and the acreage of Kuropean occupation, there are 
probably over 3 million acres of this type of country which can be placed in crops by 
European methods, and under Native methods, where hillsides offer no disadvantage, 
a much larger acreage. 

Forest Lands.—Probably about 6 to 7 per cent. of the area of Kenya was covered 
originally with dense forest growth. Around the higher land masses the forests 
have been destroyed to produce farm lands for the Native people. If one considers 
the possible potential development of this Colony and the difficulty of reestablishing 
some of the forest types, such as the cedar forests, it would seem unsafe to export 
extensively until thoroughly adequate plans of reforestation have been perfected. 
Nowhere in all East Africa are there extensive areas of true forest, most of the tree 
growth being open and scattered, valuable as woodland and for small timbers, but 
not strictly of the saw timber type. It is possible, however, on much of the area 
to produce excellent forests, and the Department of Forestry has already many acres 
of excellent young timber. 

Summary.—Up to the present, Native agricultural production has not been as 
greatly encouraged in Kenya as in other East African Colonies. This is now being 
done to a greater degree, especially in the Kavirondo country, where the results have 
been so immediate that the danger is not that it will not succeed but that it will 
succeed too well and the ultimate result on the Native tribe be somewhat disastrous. 
European agriculture is well developed here, and over a quarter of a million acres are 
now under cultivation and devoted largely to maize, coffee, sisal and wheat. (For 
a rough sketch map of the agricultural areas, see Fig. 2.) 


UGANDA 

Uganda, lying near the center of the continent, has great diversity of climate. 
The annual rainfall is light ; only in the north-eastern section, in the lowlands of 
east and north Uganda the drought periods are relatively severe, and the general 
aspect of the country is that of a region subject to long and severe droughts. The 
south-west is a temperate region, lies at high elevation and has an equable climate. 
This Colony has been long under the influence of the white man, but here more than 
in Kenya the region has always been regarded as a black man’s count ry, and the 
Native has been encouraged to produce. In export crops, however, little was accom- 
plished until a relatively short time ago. It has been developed by the missionaries 
more than any other Colony, with the possible exception of Nyasaland. Here the 
largest and most influential tribe is a Christian tribe. But agriculturally this tribe 
has done little to produce materials of value as export. This has been done more 
rapidly by the less thoroughly Christianized tribes of East Uganda. Uganda also 
has had a well-developed Agricultural Department which has looked upon Native 
agriculture as an important part of its work. The reports of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment present a very good picture of production in this region, and on them we have 
drawn largely for the material on both Native and European agriculture. 

Grazing Lands Only.—The land with semi-arid climate is limited in Uganda to the 


388 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


north-east portion (see Fig. 3). It comprises, roughly, about 10 thousand square 
miles and is inhabited by wild nomadic pastoral tribes which have been to a great 
extent free of European control. The number of cattle in this section is estimated 
at 100 thousand. It could probably support nearly a quarter of a million. This 
area, like similar areas in Ethiopia and Kenya, will probably always be the home of 
pastoral people, and the numbers may ultimately be somewhat increased by improve- 
ment of type of live stock and supplemental feeding during drought years. The forage 
for this purpose could probably be grown during favorable years. It would have 
to be stored in stacks protected from termites. 

Land Suitable for Production of Warm Climate Crops.—-The area of land suitable 
for the production of warm climate crops amounts to 64 thousand square miles, 
or 68 per cent. of the total area (see Fig. 3). Over a large portion of this the Baganda 
have a highly developed and highly specialized 
agriculture. These people have limited production 
largely to one crop, and have, likewise, limited the 
diet to a single plant, the banana, which is eaten as 
the vegetable dish matoke. These people are also 
the most advanced intellectually of the tribes of 
Uganda. The greatest disadvantage in the type of 




































































Sill agriculture is that it offers no opportunity to dis- 
a UGANDA pose of part of the crop for cash; there is no cash 
[LN OEE, value to the crop for export purposes. Notwith- 
Ey SSS COOL CL/MATE CROPS . . : “ 

WilMtwacw comare czoas| standing this fact, the region stands out as one in 
which production has been carried to a high point, 





where a single crop with comparatively little labor 
easily supplies the food requirements of the people. 
The banana, important all over Africa, is also important in other portions of the 
Colony and in many places forms a valuable element of the diet. 

In the hotter, drier regions the place of the banana is taken by sorghum, eleusine, 
maize, sweet potato and cassava. Here, through the regulations of the Department 
of Agriculture, grain, especially eleusine, is stored against possible famine. 
Here also the Natives are greatly interested in animal production and are at least 
partially pastoral. With grazing animals, several reliable cereal crops and the 
additional precaution on the part of the Government in the storing of food against 
drought, the agriculture of the Native is on a sound basis. To the list of crops 
already mentioned can now be added cotton, a money crop. The Department has 
taken steps to secure the continuation of the food crops. The natural tendency 
would be to grow the money crop and buy food ; but by requiring the destruction of 
all cotton plants just before the time for planting the eleusine and sorghum, the 
cotton crop is protected from insects and indirectly the Natives are insured a food 
crop, since the land is then planted to cereals. 

Over much of the great area cotton is an excellent crop, and it is safe to estimate 
that 4 million acres could be devoted to cotton production without reducing the 


PLATE XLIII 


‘eytAuvsuey, ‘fil ‘BAwssey (2) § purpeseAn ‘Av 


RIMWO(T “WINYS10g papeay-usdg (p) £ epuesy *S90}8}0q jooMg Buldsicy URUIO AA 


* ISNAA ‘AIN] [NOUS 9 


AT}R 





{ POXTW (9) ‘eyrAuvsury, 


‘eloqey, ‘pojuelg oq 0} Aprox 


(2) SHAW IOOIMDV AO SGOHLAIN 





dAT}E 
sospry (p) 





PLATE XLIV 





tAST AFRICA CALLS 
(a) Human Wealth : Boatmen on the Victoria Nyanza ; (b) Unworked Potentialities ; Water 
Power on the Zambezi River ; (c) The Passing of the Darkness: Dawn on Lake Nyasa. 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 889 


acreage of other crops. This figure is based on a 10 per cent. acreage of cotton. 
From the character of the country, if it were given over exclusively to a single crop, 
it would be possible to increase the acreage to probably 10 million acres, but this 
could not be advocated if it were possible, since it would almost assuredly 
expose the Natives to unnecessary risks in fluctuating markets and also probably 
force them to buy much of their food. It is by no means unreasonable to expect 
2 to 3 million acres of cotton within the next few years. 


Land Suitable for Temperate Climate Crops.—The line between temperate and 
tropical, always difficult to draw, is especially difficult in Uganda. In the region 
suitable for cool weather crops is included the area about Mount Elgon, the high 
grassland areas and the high forest area of the south-west. These are estimated at 
20 thousand square miles, or 21 per cent. of the total area. This type comprises 
the high mountainous plateau covered with grassland and dominated by the Bahima 
in Ankole, where cattle-raising is the chosen profession, but where crops are grown 
by the subservient people. In the mountainous region the Native agriculture has 
developed to a high degree, and here cereals, bananas and Sweet potatoes constitute 
the principal crops. Here coffee also does well. If the white men were to inhabit 
the country, they would find conditions more favorable here than in the lower and 
hotter sections. It is possible that with increased population the Natives will develop 
a very highly specialized agriculture, with the money crops limited to coffee and 
cereals, since it is probably too cool for cotton production. 

Forests—The forests of Uganda are mostly of the tropical rain forest type. 
There are temperate forests near Mount Elgon and in the south-west. The total 
area is small, and reforestation is important if the country is to continue its develop- 
ment. Even the problem of wood is here important, and the Natives of the north 
and east, as well as those in Ankole, are continually inconvenienced by the lack of 
woodland to furnish fuel and building material for huts and stockades. 


TANGANYIKA 


This territory, next to Portuguese East Africa, is the largest division here con- 
sidered, since it exceeds Ethiopia by 15 thousand square miles. It is exceedingly 
varied in character and type of country, and presents a wide range of conditions 
varying from almost desert to luxuriant trepical forest. 

This region, originally the center of the Arab slave trade, has long been known ; 
many of the early expeditions passed into Africa through this region across from 
Zanzibar. It came under European domination over a quarter of a century ago, 
and with a rather aggressive and constructive colonial policy the Germans developed 

o 


390 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


European agriculture far in advance of the other Kast African Colonies. During 
the war and for some time following the close of the war the plantations had no white 
supervision, with the result that now the European agriculture has fallen below that 
of Kenya. At present, however, most of the administrative effort is directed to the 
development of crops by Natives. In the region of Bukoba and Moshi, largeiy due 
to the efforts of the administration officer and with the aid of the central agricultural 
department, coffee production by Natives has reached a state in advance of that in 
any other colony. 

Semi-arid Land Unsuitable for Crop Production.—The deserts of Somaliland and 
Kenya extend into Tanganyika, where they occupy an area of about 66 thousand 
square miles, or 2 per cent. of the territory (see Fig. 4). These are too dry for crop 
production during average or 
poor years, and are suitable only 
for grazing. This grazing land 
has a low carrying capacity, but 
could probably support about 
two million cattle if fully stocked. 
This area should remain the home 
of pastoral tribes. Improvement 
in the agriculture may be ex- 
pected in the improvement of 
breeds of cattle, in the storage 
of forage produced during ex- 
ceptionally good years for use in 
the lean years and in improved 

range management. 

TANGANYIKA | TMT Land Capable of Producing 
CE Maer att Al Warm Climate Crops.—Much of 
PAI T St O Tanganyika Territory has a hot 
climate, usually with marked 
drought periods. It is capable 
of producing warm weather crops 
such as maize, sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes and groundnuts as food crops, and 
cotton, maize, groundnuts and cassava as money crops. 

The soil varies in texture from sands to clays and is fairly productive. Land of 
this type occupies about two-thirds of the Territory, or 242 thousand square miles 
(see Fig. 4). It is admirably adapted to Native agriculture, but can only be developed 
by Europeans at some risk from climate and disease. Here can be produced enormous 
quantities of maize, cassava, sorghum, simsim, beans and sweet potatoes ; here also 
can be grazed vast herds of cattle, sheep and goats; sisal grows well in this area; 
and one may estimate the probable potentiality of cotton land, if fully developed, 
as 11 million acres. Over the great area, if the Natives are developed by education, 
they can confidently look forward to such food crops as maize, cassava, sorghum, 


























































































































































































































































































































MU] wear cenare CROPS 


Fic. 4. 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 391 


eleusine, sweet potatoes, groundnuts and simsim, and to excellent money crops such 
as cotton, maize, simsim and groundnuts. The population density is much lower 
over these areas in Tanganyika than in Uganda and Kenya, and this will, of course, 
lower the total production. It does, however, insure greater freedom in the choice 
of land and also less demand for intensive rather than extensive methods of cultivation. 
Over much of the area, especially on the rich alluvial lands, sugar is an excellent crop, 
and along the coast on the sandy lands are great coconut plantations. 

Land Capable of Production of Cool Climate Crops.—The high land of Tanganyika 
in the north, west and south-west has a climate characterized by an even temperature 
never hot and where frosts never occur, and suitable both for cool weather cereals and 
for such crops as coffee and banana. Here are developed great plantations of banana 
which form an important part of the Native diet. Here can also be grown wheat, 
rice, maize and the sorghums, and here coffee has been developed as a Native crop. 
The estimated total area of the cooler portion of the land in Tanganyika (see Fig. 4) 
is 56 thousand square miles, or a little less than 7 per cent. of the total area. In 
this region Native agriculture is most highly developed, the high forests have been 
cut and destroyed, and the rather steep mountain sides prepared with the hoe to 
receive seed of eleusine, pennisetum, sorghum, maize, sweet potato, etc., and here 
are large areas of banana, yams and sweet potatoes. This region is admirably 
adapted to Native methods of agriculture where European methods often could not 
be used. On the high grasslands, stock raising is an important industry, and here 
are probably the finest grazing lands in the world. If the Colony had continued as a 
region for development by Europeans, it is probable that the more elevated and 
tillable areas in this type would have been taken by Europeans and devoted to such 
crops as coffee, flax and cereals. 

Horests—The forest lands of Tanganyika, like those of the other countries here 
considered, are not extensive and constitute only about 3 per cent. of the area. 
They consist of high forests of cedar and yellow wood, difficult of access for the most 
part and representing not more than 11 thousand square miles. Forests cannot 
be considered to be in excess, and if the country is to supply its own needs the forest 
areas should in places be supplemented by artificial plantings. There are large areas 
of what may be called woodland, where wood and material for the construction of 
Native huts and corrals can be secured. The area of the open forest type is difficult 
to estimate, but probably amounts to one-third of the total area, or 111 thousand 
Square miles. In places there is little more than a bushland, but it is of value as wood 
and timber for making huts. [t does, however, furnish a breeding place for the 
tsetse fly, and the most interesting and important work of Swynnerton (Bull. Ent. 
Res., Vol. 18, pt. 8, 1923) directs a course of deforestation, rather than forestation, 
if cattle are to be kept successfully over much of the area. Swynnerton is also 
greatly helping Native agriculture by destroying large troops of baboons which go 
about as nomadic bands and destroy the Native crops. 


392 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


ZANZIBAR 


Agriculturally Zanzibar Protectorate is at once a highly developed agricultural 
country and a primitive pastoral country. The outstanding industry of the islands 
is agriculture, although commerce is also important. Over all the area the climate 
is favorable to crop production. There are, especially on the north-east coast of 
Pemba, large mangrove swamps which cannot produce any crop and which are 
valuable as mangrove for both the bark and timber. The south and east portions 
of Zanzibar island have a shallow soil with coral rock to the surface, covered with 
grass and brush and occupied by a pastoral people who produce crops as well wherever 
sufficient soil can be found. This area is extensive and probably constitutes more 
than a third of the total. 

The remaining portions of the islands are unusually ‘astihreatis The higher land, 
with a deep rich, red soil, a heavy loam or clay, has produced the clove supply for 
the world. Here are large orchards excellently cared for and constituting one of 
the most highly specialized and developed types of agriculture. On the deep sandy 
land coconuts are the principal crop and they furnish food, drink, oil (as copra), fuel, 
fiber and building material, and are, next to cloves, the most valuable export of the 
Protectorate. Scattered through the coconut plantations and clove plantations as 
well are small orchards of tropical fruits and gardens of cassava, pineapple, sweet 
potato, groundnuts, ete. Cassava is the principal food plant. Here, as along the 
coast, it is grown in raised ridges and kept free of weeds (see Fig. 6). These small 
gardens remind one of truck crop areas, and are given relatively intensive cultiva- 
tion and produce great quantities of food. 


NYASALAND 


Of the countries considered in this Report, Nyasaland is the smallest, if we 
except Zanzibar Protectorate, where the nature of the produce and the hundreds 
of years in contact with the commercial world have developed a highly commercial 
and industrial community. Nyasaland is in some ways the poorest of the Colonies, 
but this is largely due to its small size. With no truly waste desert land, Nyasaland . 
has only 88 thousand square miles suitable for crop production. On the basis of the 
area of agricultural land the export is higher than from any of the other Colonies 
except Uganda and Kenya. The difficulties of transportation are relatively great, 
and the absence of mineral export places much of the burden of support of transport 
companies on the agricultural export. While the problems of Nyasaland at present 
seem to be largely transport and markets, it seems equally true that the area is small 
and the cost of administration, however economical, must be Zp ESO DOT as high 
when compared with the large Colonies adjacent. 

In Nyasaland there is no desert grazing land. The land with rainfall sufficient 
to produce crops may be very roughly divided into that suitable to warm climate 
crops and that suitable to cool climate crops. Surveys are not available to separate 
definitely the temperate from the warmer country (see Fig. 5), but one may estimate 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 393 


about 14 thousand square miles of country suitable to cool climate crops and 
24 thousand suitable to warm climate crops. The country suitable for warm climate 
crops, such as cotton, lies for the most part in the valley of the Shiré and along the 
lake, but cotton could be grown in a more extended area. On the basis of 10 per cent. 
of what seems climatically suited, Nyasaland could 
grow 1°5 million acres. This land would also be 
suitable for maize, sorghum, groundnuts, sisal and 
many other crops. In this area the Europeans NW 
would grow cotton and sisal. The Native has a iY NYASALAND 
large range of food crops, chief of which are sorghum, A) SS 008 Cenené 00008 
maize, cassava, groundnuts and sweet potatoes. \\ Monger tates 
Cotton here seems to be the best money crop for 
the Native, although in restricted areas along the lake 
rice is grown and finds a ready sale. 

The more elevated country, where the climate is 
more temperate and healthy, occupies probably 
about 14 thousand square miles. Here coffee was 
first tried and probably will be grown more exten- 
_Sively in the future. At present tea, especially on 
the Mlanje highlands, is a preferred crop. Tobacco 
does well and is the principal export of the Colony, followed by cotton and tea. 
Here can be developed a temperate agriculture. Such cropsas wheat do well in the 
north. The Native can grow a wide range of food crops including temperate cereals, 
maize, sorghum, eleusine, cassava and sweet potatoes. As a money crop tobacco 
seems the most promising at present, but many others could be produced. Here, 
as in the high lands farther north, cattle and coffee may become important Native 
industries. Up to the present time the transport has been so high that even cotton 
and tobacco have not enabled the Native to raise his hut tax and he has been forced 
to leave his home to seek work elsewhere. 

The present need of Native agriculture in Nyasaland is a market for produce. 
It is also desirable to develop special money crops in both the low lands and the high 
lands. The Native should also be encouraged to make greater use of his cattle. 
At the present time he stands in great danger of losing cassava as a money or food 
crop due to his propagation of cassava mosaic. In many fields almost every plant 
is diseased. 

. While the country is suitable for the production of food and money crops, Native 
agriculture is probably farther from a sound basis here than anywhere else except in 
Northern Rhodesia. On the face of it, the problem seems to be one of transport and 
market. Still the problem depends in turn on production, and it may be difficult to 
reduce transportation rates without some tangible assurance of increased production 
in the near future. The administration unit is small and the overhead expense 
necessarily proportionately large, but it is doubtful if agriculture could be economic- 
ally successful with the excessively high rate of transport from the lake to the rail 





894 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


head. This is really not an agricultural problem, but one on which agriculture 
depends. With one million Natives located in good agricultural country, it would 
not be too much to expect a million acres of cotton and tobacco within a few years 
if the problem of transportation could be solved. 

The Government Departments, smaller here than elsewhere, have been unable 
to do much for the Native farmer, and while the missions have recognized agriculture 
as an important part of the educational work they have lacked leadership and a 
definite policy. The conditions are very different from those in which these men 
have received their training and the adjustment to new conditions is not yet complete. 
Some of the best Native agriculture practised was seen in Nyasaland; still there 
is greater need here for help if the Native tax is to be maintained. And the problem 
of helping the Native here to place his agriculture on a sound basis is imminent and 
difficult. If the area tapped by the rail line were larger, if the country to supply 
the overhead expense of both Government and transport were more extensive, the 

problem would be much simplified. 


a . . . . a 
Small units in the direct line of 
transport, such for example as 


: | A Zanzibar, may succeed, but here 
| | ) i | i! ‘ the problem is entirely different. 
( 


t PortucuEsE East AFRICA 


| ) Very few definite data are avail- 
able from which to draw a picture 
of agriculture in Portuguese East 
Africa. Almost the whole of. the 
area, which is 63,000 square miles 
larger than Tanganyika, is capable 
of crop production (see Fig. 6). Of 
this probably not over 6,000 square 
miles lie at relatively high elevation 
and are adapted to cool climate 
crops, while 417,000 square miles are 
capable of producing cotton, maize, 
sorghum and groundnuts. The 
ultimate potentialities of cotton pro- 
duction in this area might easily 
reach 25 million acres without shut- 
ting out the necessary food crops. 
Agriculture from the EKuropean 
Fic. 6. point of view has been developed 

on large plantations for which the 

labor comes from Natives conscripted by the Government. They are fairly well 
paid, however, receiving almost twice as much as for similar labor in Nyasaland 



















































































































































































——S=SF7- 





















































Lay - 
I, PORTUGUESE 
| EAST AFRICA 
| UL), GRAZING ONLY 

SSS 6004 CLIMATE CROPS 


MMMM w4A07 CLtATE CROPS 


) 
) 











































































































AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 395 


and Northern Rhodesia. These large companies produce sugar and maize as the 
chief export crops. Cotton, rubber, rice and tea are also produced. Native 
agriculture has been encouraged by the reduction of Native tax if the Native 
occupied permanently one piece of land, and this has led to permanent tenure on the 
part of a portion of the Native population. The chief food crops are sorghum, 
maize and groundnuts, while maize and oil seeds serve as the chief money crops. 
Although much of the country is low and hot and will offer considerable obstacles 
to the introduction of farm draft animals or to continuous occupation by white 
men, this is a region of the greatest promise for the production of cotton, groundnuts 
and maize, and, on the rich alluvial bottoms, sugar. With proper encouragement 
Natives could here become producers of export crops of cotton, groundnuts and maize, 
while the larger European plantations could continue in the production of sugar and 
maize. It is probable cotton will also become an important crop. No country in 
Kast Africa offers greater potentialities for the production of warm climate crops. 


NortTHERN RHODESIA 


Northern Rhodesia has a very sparse Native as well as white population. Much 
of the country is capable of crop production. The chief non-crop producing areas 
are the large swampgrass areas which are available for grazing by certain animals. 
Over much of the country there is a sparse growth of trees, valuable as small 
timber and wood. A small portion of the Colony is open grassland (see Fig. 7). 
Part of this area, probably as 
much as 17,000 square miles, is 
very high and has a temperate 
climate. Most of the high land 
lies in the north-east far from 
transport lines and with prob- 
lems about the same as in 
Northern Nyasaland. Here 
coffee and temperate cereals 
can be produced either by 
Natives or whites, if the trans- 
portation and markets create 
the demand. About 264 thou- 
sand square miles have a warm 
climate and should produce 
maize, cotton, groundnuts, sor- 
ghum, eleusine, pennisetum and 
other warm weather cereals. 
Much of the open forest land is 
closed to cattle because of tsetse , 
fly, and only the open or higher areas are free to them. Natives here could produce 
cotton for sale and raise their food crops such as sorghum, maize, eleusine, ground- 


mn 


NORTH RHODESIA a 
Ui} 


Vie, GRAZING ONLY 


a 
le 


QS 6004 CLIMATE CROPS i 
(WINN) aReer CLIMATE CRORS 




































































Fic. 7. 


396 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


nuts and sweet potatoes. In much of the area cassava is not grown, probably 
because it is too cool or dry at portions of the year. 


SOUTHERN RHODESIA 


Southern Rhodesia is fortunate in having had a well-organized Agricultural Depart- 
ment capable of guiding the European agricultural development by the results of 
a long series of experiments. Ina country now largely given over to cattle and maize, 
problems of crop rotation and methods of pasture management have been partially 
solved. There has also been a great amount of seed testing and experimental work 
with forage crops. The region is admirably adapted to mixed farming, and livestock 
is important both in European and Native agriculture. In addition to agriculture, 
mining is important and the income of the Colony therefore not at present primarily 
dependent on agriculture. Much of the agricultural work has looked to the improve- 
ment of European methods, but the Native is also being considered, and it is to him 
that the Colony will probably look for the greatest production. There is not a great 
amount of variation in type of country in Southern Rhodesia. For the most part 
it is covered with tall grass with scattered trees of various types which, in favorable 
soil conditions, often form forests of relatively small trees. During much of the 
year the climate is warm enough to produce warm climate crops, but on the high 
land the end of the rainy season is marked by cool weather and conditions not favorable 
for such crops as cotton. Excepting on the high lands cotton may be expected to 
become an important crop. The soils in Rhodesia are for the most part relatively 
good, unleached soils. The soils first selected are the deep red soils. While the 
granitic soils are likely to be coarse and sandy, they are relatively good, and excellent 
crops of groundnuts and maize can be pro- 
duced on them. 

Native agriculture is somewhat similar 
to European in that it rests on cattle and 














| HIN Nalitt a grain crop. Sorghum and maize are im- 
Ht INNS 

Mh LLNS portant as are also the natural range grasses. 
HHT 

















LM CSS There is every evidence that the range can 
be easily damaged and its character changed 
by overstocking. The Agricultural Depart- 
ment has been experimenting along these 


lines, and care should he exercised especially 
| 





RHODESIA 


W272, GRAZING ONLY 


in the Native Reserves where. the Native 

may permanently reduce the carrying capa- 
city by overstocking. 

The higher country in Southern Rhodesia 

Fic. 8. seems ideally adapted to cattle and maize 

(see Fig. 8). The lower country, where 

timber is more abundant, is likely to be infected with fly and is hotter and more 

suited to cotton production. Rough estimates would place the warmer country at 


WSS 6004 CLIMATE CROPS 


INN WwARAr CLIMATE CROPS 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 397 


96 thousand square miles and the cooler at 40 thousand square miles. Open 
forest may cover another 40 thousand square miles of land ill adapted to cattle 
grazing. About 13 thousand square miles along the south-west border are 
probably too dry for constant crop production. Very extensive Native reserves 
have been set aside, and for the country as a whole the population is not dense. 
It is doubtful if with the Native population more than a million acres of growing 
crop could be expected for some years to come. It would be easy over much of 
the area to use cattle in cultivation and that would greatly extend the acreage. 
This is already being done in government and mission schools, and it is probable 
that the average crop will be enormously increased by this means. There are now 
more than 18 thousand plows in use by the Natives. 


BECHUANALAND 


From the standpoint of the physical basis of agriculture less is known of Bechuana- 
land than of any other of the countries here considered. A strip along the east side 
along which runs the railway has been seen by many and is fairly well known, but 
extending far west over that region of uncertainty known as the Kalahari is a country 
described at times as ideal grazing land and at others as sandy desert (see Fig. 9). 
Only the most vague estimates of the 








actual character of the country can be = 5 
made. It is strange that this country, a 
. ° CEEAN 
not by any means a rich crop producing CEN err SN 
RAGS ASA 
SSIINS SS SIVA g, 
country, should be able to pay the RQ SSSSSsSey 
; s SSSWASAARABVWI{VVN 
high - of f th WSR VEVSEr°wn°z°*ayygsy 
ighest per capita tax of any of the SSSA A VSAsVa°gyn 
SS&EZAIASSNS 
; : ae RSW 
countries mentioned. This is due to the MSS RAW 
a SSIS AS MEAN MNNYYWKLA 
character of the people and their sound SQ AMAAKKN 
F . . RSS SSSA 
agriculture, based on animal industry RW So 
SSSA 
i 1 SES TSSSAT INES SHZAS SISA WAN AQS WISVHsVv“ggsys 
with crop production confined to the HHA 
ote PIS SSSISISSS SSN SILA LAWS MVygg7yg Vs 
raising of the necessary cereals and YY SS\«{ (SSS 
S/S” 


vegetables for food. 

It is fairly certain that the south- 
west is desert and valuable only for 
grazing land. It is also true that much of 
the remainder is too dry for assured crop 
production, although drought resistant 
crops can be produced during average 
or favorable years. The general char- 
acter of the country is such that severe 
droughts ‘are experienced, and only the 
types of forest growth occur that can stand long dry hot periods. To call this a 
region favorable to cool climate crops would not be correct. There are no high 
lands, all is comparatively level and the temperature at times relatively high. 
It is probably too hot for the best production of small cereals such as wheat, oats 

02 


ECHUANALAND 


OZZZ GRAZING ONLY 


v2 
"4 
Ye 
Me 
9 


ROP LAND 


Fic. 9. 


398 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


and barley, but is especially suited to sorghum. Maize and cotton can be grown, but 
the rainfall is too deficient for any but dry land crops, and cotton plants will probably 
be small and the yield low. It would compare with the western areas of cotton on the 
Staked Plains of Texas. The country is large but sparsely inhabited and, considering 
its type, has probably more nearly reached its best type of agriculture than any of the 
other colonies considered in this paper. It has an abundance of small timber of 
unusually valuable species. There are extensive open forests of mopane and small 
trees excellently suited to the Natives’ needs. ‘There may be as much as 78 thousand 
square miles of country covered with this open small tree growth. Almost the whole 
area can be grazed. While tree growth covers most of the Protectorate the region 
is dry and not favorable to the tsetse fly, and therefore is favorable grazing land for 
cattle, goats and sheep. Over the greater portion of this area crops can be produced 
during favorable seasons. Sorghum is the principal crop, but maize and cotton can 
be produced if there is sufficient demand. This area of 175 thousand square miles 
is probably all subject to severe droughts and crop failures are to be expected. This 
has probably had a good effect on the Natives by making it necessary for them to 
store grain for drought periods. Native practice here seems well adapted to the region. 
The greatest help from the European will probably come from a continuation of the 
policy of developing wells for watering live stock and possibly in improving breeds 
and providing stored food against periods of famine, either cattle or human. The 
population is less than one to the square mile, even if only the better or potential 
dry-land crop land is considered. 


GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 


Kast Africa at the present time has a European population of about 63 thousand, 
and there are under European cultivation about one million acres of land. This is 
producing chiefly maize, rubber, sisal, coffee, cotton, coconuts, sugar, tobacco, wheat, 
kapok, flax and tea. Cattle are important, as are also sheep and goats. From the 
past record of production there is every reason to expect great future increase in 
production from the European plantations in East Africa. There are 22 million 
Natives in East Africa, and at present probably an equal number of acres of land 
under cultivation. Very little of this is devoted to export crops. Coconuts, cotton, 
cloves, maize, groundnuts, coffee, hides and skins are among the chief products. 
The combined export of agricultural products amount to about 11 million pounds 
sterling. Up to a few years ago there had been no systematic educational effort to 
make the Native a producer. The government departments had for the most part 
centered their activities on production on farms owned by Europeans. This is rapidly 
changing. In Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar the first place is given to the Native 
producer. In Kenya there is now taking place a rapid appreciation of the importance 
of Native production, and this to a lesser extent may be said of the Rhodesias and 
Nyasaland. In few places can the Governments be said to have the matter well in 
hand, and this is probably expecting too much at so early a date. The staff has been 
small in all cases and much time taken up in the ordinary routine of administration. 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 399 


Time for investigation of Native methods of agriculture and Native needs has been 
difficult to obtain. The control work and the practical application of general know- 
ledge has made such heavy demands that the many problems of investigation have 
had to be put aside. Not only is it necessary for this work to have men trained 
in agriculture, but it is necessary to have men who know the Native’s languages, 
the Native’s methods and who know the Native’s mental background. With this 
equipment a thorough, unprejudiced scientific study should be made of the agricul- 
tural methods practised in each country. Only then can the progress of education 
of the Native to new agricultural methods be safely undertaken. 

There is much evidence in East Africa that this method will be developed and 
followed in the near future. One of the striking things which impresses the traveler 
in East Africa is the sympathetic and sincere desire on the part of the local adminis- 
tration officers to do only that which is good for the people they govern. These men 
usually have had no practical or scientific agricultural training, but their interest 
in the Native is so sincere that they have proven one of the great forces in bringing 
about adaptation to changed conditions. In Uganda this has been shared by the 
Agricultural Department and the Administration alike; in Tanganyika excellent 
work has been done at Moshi and at Bakoba by administration men, and here also 
the Department is primarily interested in the Native. Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 
because of the larger settlements of Europeans, have centered much of this activity 
on European agriculture, but both are now instituting important Native agricultural 
work. ‘There are also cases where the Native officers and educational departments 
in cooperation with the agricultural departments are independently doing much in 
agricultural education. 

Many of the missions regard agriculture as an important phase of the work, but 
if one looks at their combined efforts this phase seems to be somewhat inadequately 
handled when compared with evangelistic, literary or even vocational training. 
Often it is little more than physical exercise. Too often the attitude toward the 
Native agriculture is that it is something that should be radically changed, rather 
than slowly improved and modified. The worker begins in too many cases by trying 
to introduce the particular type of culture practised in the region in which he had 
his early training. There seems to be a lamentable lack of breadth of view due to 
insufficient training or insufficient knowledge of both modern agricultural principles 
and Native agricultural practice. This is not said in condemnation of the men doing 
the work. They cannot in most cases be expected to master the many subjects 
necessary to successful prosecution of the work. They need books based on studies 
of Native methods, books based on the application of scientific methods to African 
agriculture. These must be forthcoming if a high standard of agricultural education 
is to be reached. The foundation is not even laid for works of this type. The simple 
facts of nature are not presented in adaptable form or in any language available to 
the Native. 

To a great extent the fundamental knowledge of Native agriculture which is 
required to write a book on agriculture or even on the simple facts of nature for the 


400 EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA 


use of the Native is lacking. It is not surprising that such books are not yet 
available when we see how meager are ordinary reading books for Natives. Most of 
them are Asiatic or European tales and folklore dealing for the most part with 
surroundings, experiences and peoples entirely foreign to the child who is doing the 
reading. Such books can easily be gotten together by educators and missionaries with 
the aid of the students of Native legends and folklore. But agricultural books of the 
best type must wait until the European has studied the Native’s methods, his preju- 
dices and superstitions, and until the essential has been clearly separated from the 
non-essential. Then the facts of science can be applied and a sure advance can be 
made. This is not impossible. Cooperative effort by an agriculturist and a man 
who stands close to the Native, enjoys his confidence and knows something of his 
methods and is sympathetic with him, could produce studies within a short time that 
would prove invaluable as a guide to present work while more thorough investigations 
were being carried out. It would seem from the very nature of the case that the 
Native women hold the essential knowledge of crop production and that it is to them 
that we must go for the information so vital to the furtherance cf agricultural 
progress. 

The education of the Natives in agriculture is only part of the general problems of 
the future of East Africa. The direction in which the Native or the European 
farmer is to be led has not yet been fully determined. Just what is the policy to be 
followed and on what is it to be based? An agricultural policy should be established, 
but this cannot be done without considering the physical basis on which to build, 
the human elements to be considered and the question of transportation and markets. 

The following is merely a suggested plan of attack on the general problem. It 
may seem too elaborate, but need not be made so if a proper balance is maintained 
between the ideal and the practical. It may be desirable to modify, simplify or 
elaborate every section, but it should serve to show a possible method of attack. 

1. The local physical basis on which agriculture can build must be known as 
clearly as modern science can perceive it. This can be accomplished by a study of 

(a) The climatic conditions favorable or unfavorable to crop growth. 

(b) Soil types, their distribution and their crop producing potentialities. 

(c) The plant communities, their distribution, their natural value as forests or 
pasture and their significance as indicators of favorable or unfavorable conditions 
for crop production. 

(d) Native agriculture, methods of crop production, and correlation of crops 
and production with climatic zones, soil types and natural vegetation as a means of 
projecting the results obtained in one region to regions not yet occupied. 

(e) European agriculture, methods and production, and their correlation with 
climate, soils and natural vegetation as a means of projecting the results obtained 
in any region to regions not yet occupied. 

2. The human elements and the relative importance in numbers of different 
peoples and races should be known. Especial study should be made of 

(a) Native peoples, their mental background, density of population, type of 


AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA 401 


agriculture practised, value as laborers or agriculturists, their probable response to 
education and their probable place as the country develops economically. 

(b) The European settlers, their number, previous experience, agricultural 
methods, their labor needs and the probable future trend of development. 

3. The problem of transport and markets, present as well as future, should be 
studied. 

4. To carry out the above survey there will be needed a director and a centralized 
scientific staff of qualified men who will summarize known facts and supplement 
them by actual surveys either by themselves or with the collaboration of colonial 
departments or of available men such as administrative officers and mission 
workers. 

5. This survey to be used by the staff to determine the best future use of land. 
The staff, with the aid of the administrative officers of the various departments, could 
form a general agricultural policy for each region. This policy should be based on 
the principle of the greatest good of the residents (Native and European) of the region 
considered. 

6. To carry out this policy, which should be made the basis of the educational 
policy supported by both mission and government educators, the Governments 
should utilize administrative measures, government and mission schools, and all 
other agencies available. 


ral ‘stay S 


‘ ae 
Sie PRE sees PS 





SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


(The inclusion of a volume in the Bibliography does not 
necessarily imply concurrence in the author’s views) 


PROBLEMS OF BLACK AND WHITE 


Bryce, James. Race Sentiment as A Factor in History. London: Hodder. 1s. 1925. 
Evans, Maurice §. Buack anp Wurte 1n Souru-East Arrica: A Study in Sociology. London : 
Longmans. 6s. IgII. 
Brack AND Wuirte 1n THE Sournern Srares. A Study of the Race Problem in the United 
States from a South African Point of View. London: Longmans. 8s. 6d. IQIS. 
Jabuvu, D. D. T. Tue Brack Prostem. London: Friends’ Book Shop. 4s. 4d. 1920. 
Mathews, Basil. uz Cras or Cotour. London: United Council for Missionary Education. 
28s. 1924. 
Oldham, J. H. Curistianrry anp THE Race Prosiem. London: Student Christian Move- 
ment. 7s. 6d. 1924. 
Speer, Robert E. Race anp Race Retations: A Christian View of Human Contacts. New 
York: Revell. $3.50. 1924. 
Or One Bioop. A Short Study of the Race Problem. New York’; Missionary Education 
Movement. $0.75. 1924. 
Willoughby, W. C. Racz Prosiems 1n roe New Arrica. A Study of the Relation of Bantu and 
Britons in those parts of Bantu Africa which are under British Control. Oxford: Claren- 
don Press. London: Oxford University Press. 15s. 1923, 


AFRICA—GENERAL 


Jones, T. Jesse. Enucation in Arrica: A Study of West, South, and Central Africa, Report 
of the First Educational Commission. New York: Phelps-Stokes Fund, tor Park Avenue. 
$2. London: Edinburgh House Press, 2 Eaton Gate. 7s. 6d. 1922. 

Beer, G. L. Arrican Questions at THE Paris Peace Conrerence. New York: Macmillan. $6. 


1923. 
Du Plessis, J. Turice THroucn tus Dark Continent, 1913-1916. London: Longmans. 
14s. 1917, 


Hardy, Georges. Vue Generare p’Historre p’AFRique. Paris. 5 frs. 1922. 
Harris, N. D. Invervenrion anp Coronrzation 1n Arrica. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 


$2. 1914. 

Hooper, H. D. Arrica in tHe Maxinc. London: United Council for Missionary Education. 
2s. 1922. 

Johnston, Sir H. H. Tue Openinc Up or Arrica. London: Williams and Norgate. 2s. 6d 
IQII. 


‘Lagden, Sir Godfrey. Tue Native Races or tuz Empire. London: Collins, 16s. 1924. 
Lucas, Sir Charles. Tue Partition or Arritca. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 12s. 6d, 1922. 
Macdonald, A. J. Trap Porirics anp CurisTIANiIty In Arrica AND THE East. London: Long- 

mans. 6s. net. I9gI6. 

Meinhof, Carl. Dicurune per Arrixaner. Berlin. rgrr. 
AFRIKANISCHE Reticionen. Berlin. 1912. 
AFRIKANISCHE Recutscepraucue. Berlin, 1914. 

408 


404. BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Smith, Edwin W. Tue Reticion or Lower Raczs as ILLUSTRATED BY THE AFRICAN Bantu. New 
York: Macmillan. $1. 1923. 

Woolf, Leonard. Empire anp Commerce 1n Arrica: A Study in Economic Imperialism. Lon- 
don: Allen and Unwin. 20s. 1920. 


EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA 


Bert and, Alfred. Au Pays pes Ba-Rotst (Haut Zambéze). Paris: Hachette. 1898. [o.p.] 
Calvert, A. F. German East Arrica. London: Laurie. 6s. net. 1917. 
Dale, Godfrey. Tur Propies or Zanzipar: Their Customs and Religious Beliefs. London: 
Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. 2s. 1920. 
Driberg, J. H. Tue Lanco: A Nizotic Trise or Ucanva. Foreword by Sir Robert Coryndon. 
London: Fisher Unwin. 63s. 1923. 
Dundas, Charles. Krizimanyaro anv Its Peoprt. London: Witherby. 18s. 1924. 
Ellenberger, D. F. Hisrory or rue Basuros. London: Caxton Publishing Press. 7s.6d. 1913. 
Ellis, G. W. Necro Currure 1n West Arrica. Chicago. $2.15. 1914. 
Fraser, Donald. Winninc a Primitive Peopre. London: Seeley, Service. 5s. 1914. 
Goru, P. Julien. Entre re Victoria, 1’Atsert et L’Epovarp. Ethnographie de la partie an- 
glaise du Vicariat de "Uganda ; origines, histoire, religion, coutumes. Marseille : Procure 
des Péres Blancs. 13.50 frs. 1920. 
Hine, Bishop J. E. Days Gone By: Being Some Account of Past Years, chiefly in Central 
Africa. London: Murray. 16s. 1924. 
Hobley, Chas. W. Bantu Betiers anp Macic. With particular reference to the Kikuyu and 
Kamba Tribes of Kenya Colony: together with some Reflections on East Africa. With 
an Introduction by Sir J. G. Fraser. London: Witherby. 18s. 1922. 
Erunozocy or THE A-KamBA AND OTHER AFRicAN Tripes. London: Cambridge University 
Press. 12s. 6d. IgiIo. 
Hollis, A. C. Tur Masar. London: Oxford University Press. 16s. 1905. 
Tue Nanpr. London: Oxford University Press. 16s. 1909. 
Hurel. La Porste cuez Les Primitirs ; ou Contes, Fables et Proverbes du Ruanda (Kivu). Biblio- 
théque Congo, Librairie Falk Fils, Bruxelles. 18 frs. 1923. 
Johannsen, M. E. Ruanpa, Kierne AnrAnce-croszz Aurcasrn. Bethel bei Bielefeld. 1915. 
Johnson, W. P. Nyasa, rue Great Water. London: Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d. 1922. 
My Arrican Reminiscences, 1875-1895. London: Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. 
4s. 1925. 
Johnston, Sir H.H. Brrrisq Cenrraz Arrica. London: Methuen. 3rd edition. 1 5s. 
Tue Ucanpa Protectorate. Vols. 1 & II. London: Hutchinson. 1902. [o.p.] 
Comparative Stupy or Bantu Lancuacrs. London: Oxford University Press. 63s. 1922. 
Junod, H.A. Tue Lire or a Sours Arrican Trisz. 2vols. London: Macmillan. 30s. 1912. 
Cuants et Contes pes Ba-Ronca. Lausanne: Bridel. 1897. [o.p.] 
Zipj1: Etude de meeurs sud-africaines. Neuchatel: Delachaux et Vicstlé. 1911. [o.p.] 
Keable, Robert. A Crry or THE Dawn. Introduction by A. C. Benson. London: Nisbet. 
Ss. 1915. 
Kidd, Dudley. Savacze CuttpHoop. London: A. & C. Black. 7s. 6d. 1906. 
Lagden, Sir Godfrey. Tur Basuros: The Mountaineers and their Country. 2 vols. London: 
Hutchinson. 17s. 1909. . 
Lechaptois, Mgr. (Péres Blancs). Aux Rives pu Tancanyixa. Alger: Maison Carré, Imprimerie 
des missionaires d’Afrique. 3.50 frs. 1913. 
Le Roy (Mgr.). Au Kitimanpyaro. Paris: Procure des Péres du Saint-Esprit. 10 frs. 1914. 
Leys, Norman. Kenya. London: Hogarth Press. 10s. 1924. 
Livingstone, David. Mussronary Travers. London: Murray. 3s. 6d. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 405 


Lugard, Sir F. D. Tue Rise or Our East Arrican Empire. 2 vols. London: Blackwood. 
42s. 1893. [o.p.] 

Tue Duar Manpate in Britisa Tropicat Arrica. London: Blackwood. 42s. 1922. 

Melland, F.H. In Wircn-Bounp Arrica. An Account of the Primitive Kahonde Tribe and their 
Beliefs. London: Seeley, Service. 21s. 1923. 

Migeod, F. W. H. Across Equatorrat Arrica. London: Heath Cranton. 30s. 1923. 

Molema, 8. M. Tue Bantu, Past anp Present. Edinburgh : W. Green. 25s. 1920. 

Montaudon, George. Au Pays Gurmrera. Bulletin de la Société Neuchateloise de Géographie. 

Rey, Charles F. Unconquerep Apsysstnta as Ir 1s To-pay. London: Seeley, Service. 21s. 
1923. 

Rolin, H. Du resrscr pes CourumEs INDIGENES RELATIVES AUX BIENS ET AUX PERSONNES DANS 
L’Arrique Ausrrate er Centrare. Institut Colonial International. Compte rendue de la 
Session tenue 4 Paris les 17, 18, 19 mai 1921. Paris: Challumel. 1921. [o.p.] 

Roscoe, John. Tue Bacanpa. London: Macmillan. I5s. I9QII. 

Tue Baxrrara or Banyoro: Ist Part of the Report of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition to 
Central Africa. London: Cambridge University Press. 25s. 1923. 

Tue Banyanxore. 2nd Part of Mackie Expedition Report. London: Cambridge University 
Press. 158. 1923. 

Tue Bacesu. 3rd Part of Mackie Expedition Report. London: Cambridge University 
Press. 20s. 1924. 

Tue Sour or Cenrrat Arrica. A General Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. 
London: Cassell. 25s. 1922. ‘ 

Tue Nortuern Bantu. London: Cambridge University Press. 12s. 6d. 1915. 

Routledge, W.S.&K. Wiru a Prentsroric Propie. The Kikuyu. London: Arnold. 21s. 
I9Io. 

Sharpe, Sir Alfred. Tue Bacxsone or Arrica. London: Witherby. 16s. 1921. 

Smith, E. W., & Dale, A. M. Tue Iza-Speaxinc Pzopizs oF NortTuern Ruopgsia. 2 vols. 
London: Macmillan. sos. 1920. 

Stirke, D. W. Barorserann: Eight Years Among the Barotse. With an introductory chapter by 
Sir Harry Johnston. London: Bale & Danielsson. 21s. 1922. 

Torrend, J., S.J. Specimens or Bantu Forx-Lore From Nortuern Ruopesia. With musical 
illustrations. London: Kegan, Paul. New York: E. P. Dutton. os. 6d. net. 1921. 

Watts, C.G. Dawn 1n Swazitanp. London: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 3s. 
1922. 

fetid Native Races or Britisn Cenrrat Arrica. London: Constable. 6s. 1912. 

Wilson, G. N. A Misstonary’s Lire in Nyasatanp. London : Universities’ Mission to Central 
Africa. 2s.6d. 1920. 

Manual of Portuguese East Africa. Compiled by the Geographical Section of the Naval Intelli- 
gence Division, Naval Staff, Admiralty. London: H.M. Stationery Office. 7s. 6d. 
1920. 

Permanent Mandates Commission [of the League of Nations]: Minutes of 3rd Session, Annexe to 
3rd Session. London: Constable. 7s. 6d. 1923. 


BIOGRAPHIES 


Mes Souvenirs. Eugéne Casalis. Paris: Société des Missions évangéliques. 3me édit. 6 frs. 
1922. 

FE. Cane Corttarp : a Wayrarinc Man. Edward Shillito. London: Student Christian Move- 
mente $8.) 1923. 

La Viz v’un Missionarre Francais : Frangois Coillard, 1843-1904. Edouard Favre. Paris; 
Société des Missions évangéliques. 14.2 5 frs. 

Hanninoton, Bisnor. W. G. Berry. London: Religious ‘Tract Society. 2s. 6d. 


406 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Lire or Davip Livinestone. W. G. Blackie. 6th edition. London: Murray. 6s. 1910. 

Laws or Livinestonia. W. P. Livingstone. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 15s. 1921. 

Apo.pue Masitte, missionaire au Lessouto. Paris: Société des Missions évangéliques. 1898. 

Mackay or Ucanpa, By his Sister. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 5s. 1891. 

Joun Situ Morrat, C.S.M. Misstonary: A Memoir by his Son, Robert N. Moffat. London : 
Murray. 21s. 1921. 

Rosert Morrar. E. W. Smith. London: United Council for Missionary Education. 5s. 1925. 

Finpinc a Way Our: An Autobiography. R.R.Moton. New York. 1920. 

Rosert Hexrier Napier iy Nyasaranp. Edited by Alexander Heatherwick, D.D. Edinburgh 
& London: Blackwood. 5s. 1925. 

Smytuies, Lire or Bisnop, Edited by E. F. Russell. London: Universities’ Mission to Central 
Africa. 2s. 6d. 1898. 

Steere, Memoir or Bisnop. R, M. Heanley. London: Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. 
2s. 6d. 1886. 

E1cuTeen Years in UGanpa AnD East Arrica. Bishop Tucker. London: Arnold. 7s.6d. 1911. 

Hanpsook or Asyssinia. No. 129. Prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of 
the Foreign Office. London: H.M. Stationery Office. 2s. 6d. 1920. 

Hanpsook or Nyasatanp. Compiled by §. S. Murray, Chief Clerk, Nyasaland Government. 
London; Waterlow and Sons. ‘Ss. 

Hanpzook or Nortuern Ruopesta. Compiled and edited by G. C. C. Coxhead, Secretary for 
Native Affairs, Administration of Northern Rhodesia. Livingstone: Printed by the 

_ Government Printer. 2s. 6d. 1922. 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


Baker, Ray Stannard. Fottowine THE Cotor Ling. [o.p.] 
Brawley, B.G. A Soctau Hisrory or THE American Necro. New York: Macmillan. $4. 1921. 
Tue Necro in Lirerature anp Art. New York: Duffield. $1.50. 1921. 
Du Bois, W. E. B. Gurr or Brack Fotx. Boston: Stratford. $2. 1924. 
Tue Sours or Brack Forx. Chicago. 1902. 
Hammond, L. H. In Brack anp Wuite. New York. 1914. 
In roe Vancuarp or A Race. New York.: Missionary Education Movement. $0.75. 1922. 
Haynes, G. E. Tue Trenp or tue Racers. New York : Missionary Education Movement. $0.75. 
1922. 
Jones, T. Jesse. Epucationan Apaptations. Ten Years’ Work of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. 
New York. 1920. 
Necro Epucation 1n tHe U.S.A. 2 vols. Washington: Government Printing Office. 
$2.25. 1917. 
Miller, Kelly. Race Apyusrment. New York. 1909. 
Moton, Robert Russa. Finpinc a Way Our. Garden City: Doubleday. 1920. 
Murphy, Edgar Gardner. Tue Basis or Ascenpancy. New York. 1909. 
Peabody, Francis Greenwood. Epucation ror Lire: The Story of Hampton Institute. Garden 
City: Doubleday. 1918. 
Scott, Emmett J., and Stowe, Lyman Beecher. Booxer T. Wasuincron: Builder of a Ciyili- 
zation. Garden City: Doubleday. $2. 1916. 
Washington, Booker T. (ed.). Tusxrcee, Irs Peopre; Tuur1r Ipzars anp Acuizvements. New 
York: Appleton. 1906. 
Up From Stavery. New York. 1900. 
My Larcer Epucation. New York. 1912. 
Weatherford, W. D. ‘Tue Necro rrom Arrica to America. New York: Doran. $5. 1924. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 407 
VOLUMES PUBLISHED ANNUALLY 


STATESMAN’s YEARBOOK. Sir John Scott Keltie and M. Epstein. London; Macmillan. 

Cotoniat Orrice List. London : Waterlow & Sons. 35s. 

East Arrican Rep Boox. Nairobi and Mombassa : East African Standard, Ltd. 

Kenya ANNUAL AND Directory, incLupinc Ucanpa Section. A descriptive, official and statistical 
account of Kenya Colony and Uganda. Compiled by Cecil Davis. Nairobi: Leader 
Office. 19s. 

SouTu anp srr YEARBOOK AND Guipe. With atlas and diagrams. Edited by S. 
Samler Brown and G. Gordon Brown. London : Sampson Low. 

Necro Year Boox. Monroe N. Work. Alabama: Negro Year Book Publishing Company. 


FURTH&R SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

Articles in various Encyclopedias. 

Official Documents and Reports published by the British, Belgian and Portuguese Government 
and also by the League of Nations. 

Periodicals and Reviews, published monthly or quarterly in Great Britain, North America, and the 
countries of Continental Europe. 

The Fournal of the African Society and the International Review of Missions contain a Biblio- 
graphy of new works on Africa. 

Missionary Societies working in East and Central Africa publish annual reports of their work and 
monthly or quarterly news of its progress. Several of the larger ones have published 
Histories which contain valuable material. 

Occasional Papers published by the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund. 


















: eas Sos *. “ry 
wae “ariel Pista 
. ary — al di hy wea) 
« ay Ant | } £6¢ : beet Tis ‘Abs Ai eae ha 
i \ aa. ; J Tae Te oe oA wy VERE bbe 4 BF 








Raa Rach ior Sa ahh Si ieee bors ek Ey hire nt ss PA bathe pees: 
Seeger ia Oy ROULO ay Ber est A ene a chek a te i a ROT 
Sh ie HEPES toe) See vues Ly ae ch. deat 5 eis ap wll ia 
ul ‘ bd i a 

ee : ‘ x | , = | a rit 
\ ; 


1 ’ tres q ¥ i 





ee f 4d. tease lima bok er ctatte trek. D4 rent rath wy; Bh 8 aK Re Bt 

a LS eee 1.8 ad 4 read 4 parka Ta: te £ YOR snot wig 1 ty 1M a 
.ccae BOP cheel deta aay. rere 4 ean Le > Roan Ce 

a ee ee d ; <a ack »/ 

uv ‘ 


> + 2h 4 - 
ie font § : rt ee diy 4 4 i} yay afar a iva er Pei Cow Abe 


i: : Ne 
f bi eats rt ie - 
~ - 
t i ry 
be” ii ‘ : 
U i 
’ t At ee iT 
i 
S, * i “S 
Q p | . 44 botag Fe rT THOME AI Ww wPTa IE int sifp 
P ’ ihe 
atintiin sldacteo atcttiosg ie ‘ oe 
“i 7 a} fea} sje) “Thi ot biw a ate Be 





Mis \y ¢ an 
i mt a” ahs, 


INDEX 


Abyssinia (Ethiopia): Introduction, 316-7; 
country, 318-20 ; people, 320-4; European 
influences, 324-5 ; education, 326-30; ele- 
ments of hope, 831-5; recommendations, 
336-8 ; agricultural potentialities, 279-85 

Accounts, School, 56 

Achimota, xvii, xviii, 69 

Acknowledgments: Service in preparation of 
Report, xxiv-v; rendered to Commission 
in Africa by Governments, xxv: by 
Missions, xxvi; by Economie Groups, 
xxvii; by Africans, xxvii 

Adaptations. See Education 

Addis Ababa, 322; schools at, 327-9 

Administration, Educational: Importance of, 
46; present defects in, 46-7 ; conditions of 
effectiveness, 47-50. See also Organization, 
Supervision, Recommendations of Commis- 
sion 

Advisory Committees on Native Education: 

Formation suggested, in Abyssinia, 336; 
Nyasaland, 216; Portuguese East Africa, 
314; S. Rhodesia, 253 ; N. Rhodesia, 265 ; 
Ruanda-Urundi, 295 

In British Colonial Office, xix-xx, 51-2, 352 

In British Colonies, Kenya, xxvii-viii, 118, 
136; Uganda, 166 ; Zanzibar, 224 

Africa, 3, 6, 77-9, 84-7, 98, 97-8. See also East 
Africa, South Africa and names of territories 

Africa Inland Mission: Kenya, 128-30; Tan- 
ganyika, 186 

African Institute Missionary Board, Kenya, 132 

African Educators: Visit to America of, xx 

Aggrey, J. Kwegyir, xvii, xx, xxvii, 6 

Agriculture : 

Attitude of Africans towards, 36-7 ; depen- 
dence of country on, 86; need for educa- 
tion in, 37, 283; methods of education in, 
35-40, 64-6 

Government Training in, in Kenya, 117, 120; 
in Uganda, 155; in Tanganyika, 177; in 
Zanzibar, 225; in S. Rhodesia, 231, 239 ; 
in N. Rhodesia, 264; in Bechuanaland, 277 ; 
Swaziland, 279 ; in Ruanda-Urundi, 290-1 ; 
Portuguese East Africa, 306 

In Kenya, 108-9 ; Uganda, 146-7; Tangany- 
ika, 171-4; Nyasaland, 196; Zanzibar, 
221; S. Rhodesia, 231, 234; Basutoland, 
270; Swaziland, 272; Ruanda-Urundi, 
285-6, 289; Portuguese East Africa, 300 ; 
Abyssinia, 319-22 

Mission Training in, in Kenya, 128, 130, 182, 
133; in Uganda, 158-9; in Tanganyika, 
185, 187-8; Nyasaland, 2038-4, 206-7, 210, 
212; Zanzibar, 226; S. Rhodesia, 241-6; 
in N. Rhodesia, 262; in Ruanda-Urundi, 
291-2; in Portuguese East Africa, 308; 
in Abyssinia, 329-30. See also analysis of 
Supplementary Chapter on Agriculture in 
East Africa, p. 353 


Alliance of Protestant Missionary Societies, 127, 
138-9 

American Congregational Board, S. Rhodesia, 
247-9 

American Free Methodist Mission, Portuguese 
East Africa, 311 


American Methodist Episcopal Mission: S. 
Rhodesia, 246-7; Portuguese East Africa, 
309-10 

Amusements. See Recreation 


Animal Husbandry : Survey of, 16-7, 87;  in- 
struction in, 39-40; in Kenya, 120; in 
Nyasaland, 204; in S. Rhodesia, 239-47 
passim; in N. Rhodesia, 262; in three 
Protectorates, 283; in Ruanda-Urundi; 
285-6, 290; in Portuguese East Africa, 310, 
in Abyssinia, 334-5 ; animal garden in girls’ 
school, 342-8. See also Live Stock 

Arithmetic, Teaching of, 16-7 

Armstrong, General S. C.,* xvii; quoted, 40, 
63-4 

Art, 45, 91, 344-5. See also Handicrafts, Native 

Arthur, Dr. J. W., 126 

Artizans. See Industrial Work 

Asiatics in East Africa, 4, 82,7101, 114, 116, 151 

Aspirations of Africans, 10, 98-9, 832-3, 341, 
348 


Bahutu tribe, 285, 367 
Barotse Government School, 260, 264 
Basutoland: Introduction, 268-9; people and 


country, 269-71; European influences, 
271; education, 274-6: summary and 


recommendations, 280-3 

Batusi tribe, 285-6, 36'7 ; school, 290 

Bechuanaland: Introduction, 268-9; people 
and country, 271-2; European influences, 
272; education, 277-8; summary and 
recommendations, 280-3; agricultural po- 
tentialities, 397-8 

Beira, xxiii 

Belgian Colonial Administration, 67, 289. 
also Ruanda-Urundi 

Belgian Protestant Missionary Society, 292 

Bibeltrégner Vanner, 328-9 

Bible, The. See Religious Education 

Bible Societies, 96-7, 330, 335 

Bibliography, 402-6 

Bidwell, Bishop, 52 

Blantyre, 202-4 

Boarding Schools. See Schools 

Books and Periodicals : Increase of cooperation 
regarding, 97; need for vernacular text 
books, 17-8, 26; value of European and 
American publications, 17-8; need for 
government aid, 20-1 ; educational periodi- 
cals, 74-5; Mission printing press, 275. 
See also Bible Societies 


See 


409 


410 


Boy Scout Movement, 158, 184 

Brethren Mission, Northern Rhodesia, 263 
Bride-Price, 846 

British Colonies and Dependencies. See Colonies 
British Empire, 5-6, 77, 80, 101 

Budo, King’s School, 156-7, 167 

Bukalasa Seminary, 161 

Bush Schools. See Schools, Supervision 

Butere, 123 

Buttrick, Wallace, on Booker T. Washington, 15 
Buxton High School, 121 


Canterbury, Archbishop of, xix 

Cattle. See Live Stock 

Census, 103, 171, 220, 285 

Character: Fundamental, in education, 7-11 ; 
processes of development, 12-13 ; in relation 
to health, 18; to environment, 18; to 
family life, 18; to recreation, 138-4; to 
religion, 14, 67-8; methods of character 
development, 14-5. General Armstrong 
quoted, 43; Sir G. Guggisberg quoted, 
xvii. See also Recommendations of the Com- 
mission ; Religious Education 

Chikore, 249 

Christian Church of Abyssinia, 326, 383-4 

Church of Christ, N. Rhodesia, 268 

Church Missionary Society: Kenya, 120-5; 
Uganda, 156-60, 163-6; Tanganyika, 181, 
184; Ruanda-Urundi, 292 

Church of Scotland Mission: System of organ- 
ization, 202; Kenya, 125-8; Tanganyika, 
184-5; Nyasaland, 202-4; Portuguese East 
Africa, 311 

Civilization, Agencies for development of, xiv, xv 

Classical Languages. See Languages 

Clothing, 24, 340 

Coeducation, 349-50 

College, Colonial Native, 68-9 

Colonial Office, British. See Advisory Committee 

Colonies and Dependencies : 

British. See Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Kenya, 
Nyasaland, N. Rhodesia, S. Rhodesia, 
Swaziland, Tanganyika, Uganda, Zanzibar 

Belgian. See Ruanda-Urundi 

Portuguese. See Portuguese East Africa 

Commerce, xiv-xv 

Commercial Groups. See Economic Groups 

Commission (Government) in Kenya, 115-6 

Commission to China, Educational, xx 

Commissions on Education: To West Africa, 
xix, 22, 52, 55-7, 59-60, 63-4, 68, 70-74; 
to East Africa: origins of, xviii-xx; per- 
sonnel, xx-xxii; itinerary, xxii-xxiv. See 
also Recommendations of the Commission 

Communications : Means of, 150, 198, 236, 319 ; 
value of, 113, 286, 255, 304; lack of, 193, 
196, 198, 257, 272, 288, 2938 

Community Life: Elements of, 7-8; value of 
consciousness of, 9-11; school subjects in 
relation to, 15-9; the community and 


INDEX 


languages of instruction, 21; and health, 
22-5; home and the community, 25-7; 
recreation and the community, 31-5 ; com- 
munity needs and agriculture, 35-9; and 
industrial education, 42-3; and higher 
education, 43-5 ; adaptation of education to, 
48-9. See also Surveys, Educational ; Recom- 
mendations of the Commission 
Community of the Resurrection, S. Rhodesia, 
243 
Companies : In Kenya, 110; in Uganda, 148 ; 
in Nyasaland, 196, 199; in S. Rhodesia, 
234, 287; in N. Rhodesia, 255, 258; in 
Portuguese East Africa, 297, 299, 301-3 ; 
in Abyssinia, 824-5. See also Land Tenure 
Constitutions and Administrative Systems of 
Colonies and Dependencies : Basutoland, 
270-1; Bechuanaland, 272; Kenya, 110; 
Nyasaland, 197; Portuguese East Africa, 
301; Northern Rhodesia, 258 ; Southern 
Rhodesia, 288; MRuanda-Urundi, 287; 
Swaziland, 273; Tanganyika, 175-6; 
Uganda, 148 ; Zanzibar, 223 
Cook, Dr. and Mrs. Albert, 159-60 
Coolidge, President, quoted, 69 
Cooperation : 
Attitude of mind, not expediency, 76-9 
Forms of cooperation—‘‘ departments” v. 
‘* compartments,” 92-3; Government co- 
operation : interdepartmental, 93-4; with 
non-government units, 94-5; by councils, 
95-6; missions and cooperation, 96-7 ; 
Natives and cooperation, 97-100} 
In work of Phelps-Stokes Commission, xxi, 
XXVii 
Units of cooperation—home population, 
79-80 ; mandate system, 80; United States 
of America, 80-1; the African colonies, 
81-2 ; Union of South Africa, 82-3 ; colonial 
governments, 84-5; settlers and _ traders, 
86-7 ; missions, 87-90; the Native people, 
90-2 
Coryndon, Sir Robert, xxv 
Cotton: Table of exports, 860-1; danger of 
rapid development, 364-5 ; in Uganda, 142, 
146-7, 158-9, 162, 166 ; in Kenya, 107, 386; 
in Nyasaland, 393; in N. Rhodesia, 264, 
395 ; in S. Rhodesia, 396 
Currie, Sir James, xx, 52 


Dar-es-Salaam, 175, 177, 181 

Dillard, James, xxi 

Dire Dawa, 322, 325 

Domboshawa Industrial School, 239 

Director of Native Development, 239 

Directors of Education: Functions of, 50-1; 
Basutoland, 274; Kenya, 118, 137; Tan- 
ganyika, 179, 188; Zanzibar, 224; recom- 
mendations concerning: Bechuanaland, 
281; Nyasaland, 216; N. Rhodesia, 265 ; 
Ruanda-Urundi, 295; Swaziland, 281; 
Uganda, 166 


INDEX 


I)utch Reformed Church: Agricultural policy 
of, 212 ; as unit of cooperation, 83 ; Confer- 
ence of Bantu and Europeans called by, 
99-100 ; in Nyasaland, 211-14; in Southern 
Rhodesia, 242 ; in Northern Rhodesia, 261 ; 
in Portuguese East Africa, 311-13 


East Africa: Challenge of, 3-6; unit of co- 
operation, 81-2; region considered, 353-4. 
See also Agriculture 

Economie Groups: As unit of cooperation, 
86-7. See also Companies, Traders, Settlers 

Economie Resources: Of East Africa, 3-4; 
Abyssinia, 319-20; Basutoland, 269-70; 
Bechuanaland, 272; Kenya, 109, 135-6: 
Nyasaland, 196, 215; Portuguese East 
Africa, 299-300; N. Rhodesia, 255-8; S. 
Rhodesia, 234; Ruanda-Urundi, 286; 
Swaziland, 272; Tanganyika, 169, 174; 
Uganda, 146-7, 162 ; Zanzibar, 221, 223 

Education : Conception of, xv-xvii; objectives 
and adaptations of, 7-45, 48, 91-2; im- 
portance of higher education, xviii, 43-5, 
68-9, 267 ; and of education for the masses, 
xvii, 48-9, 59-60, 70-3 ; agriculture increases 
demands on, 373 ; so does economic pressure, 
375. See also Administration, Cooperation, 
Directors of Education, Extension (Educa- 
tional), Organization, Schools, Supervision, 
Women and Girls (Education of), and sections 
on Education under names of countries 

Education Board, General, xxi; international, 


xxi 

Educational Conferences, value of, 74-5 

Environment. See Sociological Background 

Ethiopia. See Abyssinia 

Europeans: Numbers in East Africa, 4-5; in 
Abyssinia, 325; Basutoland, Bechuana- 
land and Swaziland, 269 ; Kenya, 101, 113; 
Nyasaland, 195; Portuguese East Africa, 
300-4; N. Rhodesia, 259; S. Rhodesia, 
236; Ruanda-Urundi, 288-9; Tanganyika, 
178; Uganda, 151; Zanzibar, 220; re- 
lations with Africans, 82, 90, 135-6, 162 ; 
effect of European control of Native agricul- 
ture, 371-2 

Evangelical Lutheran Mission, in Tanganyika, 
186 

Evangelical National Society (Swedish), 328 

Expenditure on Native Welfare, Government : 


Basutoland, 271; Bechuanaland, 272; 
Kenya, 111-2; Nyasaland, 197; N. 
Rhodesia, 258-9; S. Rhodesia, 235; 


Swaziland, 273 ; Tanganyika, 176 ; Uganda, 
148 ; Zanzibar, 224. See also Financial 
Support 

Exports and Imports: Table of exports, 860-2 ; 
from Abyssinia, 320; Basutoland, 270; 
Kenya, 109; Nyasaland, 196; Portuguese 
East Africa, 299; N. Rhodesia, 258; 


411 


Ruanda-Urundi, 286; Tanganyika, 174; 
Uganda, 146-7; Zanzibar, 223 

Extension, Educational : Importance of, 49-50, 
69-70; farm demonstration movement, 
70; home demonstration, 71; rural clubs, 
71; movable schools, 72-3; Government 
extension work, 74, 


Farm Demonstration Movement. See Extension 
(Educational) 

Farm Schools, 65-6, 334-5 

Farming. See Agriculture 

Financial Support of Education: By Africans, 
153, 288; need for increase of, in Basuto 
and Bechuanaland, 283; in Kenya, 137; 
in Nyasaland, 199, 217; in Portuguese 
East Africa, 314; in N. Rhodesia, 265 ; 
in S. Rhodesia, 253; in Ruanda, 294; 
in Tanganyika, 189; in Uganda, 167; for 
women’s education, 347-8, 349 

Forestry : Distribution of woodland and forest, 
380-1; in Abyssinia, 385; in Kenya, 109, 
387 ; Nyasaland, 206-7; Portuguese East 
Africa, 299; S. Rhodesia, 231; Tangany- 
ika, 175, 8391; Uganda, 147, 889 

Fort Hare, xviii, 69, 188, 267 

Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, 43 

Fraser, Donald, 205, quoted, 34-5, 208-11 

Fraser, Mrs., 205, quoted, 29-31 

Freretown Divinity School, 121 

Friends’ Africa Mission, Kenya, 130-1 

Friends’ Foreign Missionary Association, Pemba, 
226-7 

Frissell, Dr., quoted, 15 


Games. See Recreation 

Garanganze Mission, 263 

Gardening. See Agriculture 

Garfield Williams, quoted, 125, 157-8, 164-5 

Gayaza Girls’ School, 157 

Germans, in Tanganyika, 175; in Urundi, 287 ; 
education system, 178 

Gibson, B. D., quoted, 70 

Girls. See Women and Girls 

Girls’ Schools. See Schools 

Githumu, 130 

Gospel Mission, Kenya, 132-3 

Government: Place of, in Africa, 5-6'; trusteeship 
of, 101-2, 284-5, 287-8, 312-4, 381-2; asa 
unit of cooperation, 80-5, 92-6; relation 
to Commission to East Africa, xix-xx, xxi, 
xxv. See also Constitutions for Colonies and 
Dependencies, Expenditure on Native Wel- 
fare, Land Tenure, Recommendations of 
the Commission, and sections on European 
Influences and on’ Education under names of 
countries 

Guggisberg, Sir Gordon, quoted, xvii 


412 


Hampton Institute, xvii, 15 

Handicrafts, Native : In Abyssinia, 821 ; Nyasa- 
land, 195 ; Tanganyika, 172 ; Uganda, 145 ; 
Zanzibar, 222; training in, 64. See also 
Industrial Work 

Hannington, Bishop, 147 


Health : 

Health Departments, work of: Congo State, 
6-7; Kenya, 112; Tanganyika, 117; 
Ruanda-Urundi, 288 ; Uganda, 149; Zan- 
zibar, 225 


Methods of education in, 25; instances in 
villages, 30-1; in school, 177; need of, 
105, 163-5, 168, 208, 254, 288 ; women and 
health, 339 

Principles of, importance to community, 
22-3; relation to character development, 
13; as educational objective, 23-5 ; survey 
of conditions of, 24 

See also Medical Work, Recommendations of the 
Commission, Vital Statistics 

Heatherwick, Dr. Alexander, 202 

Herzog, General, xxv 

High Schools, 167, 267 

Higher Education. See Education 

History, Teaching of, 18-9, 44-5 

Hoima, 158 

Home: As objective of education, 8, 11; in 
relation to character, 18; rediscovery of, 
25-6; place in primitive and colonial life, 
26-7 ; survey of, in community, 27; edu- 
cation in home activities, 27-9 ; instances 
of, in Nyasaland, 29-31; in S. Rhodesia, 
243-4, 249; in N. Rhodesia, 343-6; in 
Basutoland, 276; from Commission’s Re- 
ports, 342-3; woman’s responsibility for, 
339-40 

Home Demonstration Movement. See Extension 
(Educational) 

Hooper, Mrs. Handley, quoted, 348 

Hope Fountain Girls’ School, 249 

Hospitals. See Medical Work 

Hostels, 28, 97, 347 

Housing, 24, 29, 81, 105, 209, 218, 241, 247, 263 

Hygiene. See Health 


Iganga, 159 

Imports. See EKxporits and Imports 

Indians in East Africa, number of, 5, 193; 
influence of, 82, 101-2, 116, 184-5 ; occupa- 
tion of, 151, 178, 221 

Industrial Work : 

Government centers of : Domboshawa, 239 ; 
Kanyongo, 264; Machakos, 119 ; Makerere, 
155-6; Maseru, 275; Tanga, 182; Tjolotjo, 
239; Waa, 119-20; Zanzibar, 225 

Importance to community, 40, 42; as educa- 
tional objective, 42-3; adaptation to sur- 
roundings, 212 

Mission centers of: Blantyre, 203-4; Kambini, 


INDEX 


310; Kafue, 262; Kikuyu, 126; Kisubi, 
161; Kutama, 241; Livingstonia, 206 ; 
Lumbwa, 132; Mkhoma, 212; Morgenster, 
242; Umtali, 246; Waddilove, 245 
Training in: Basutoland, 275-6 ; Kenya, 117, 

126, 181-2; Nyasaland, 206, 210, 212; 
Portuguese East Africa, 308, 310; N. 
Rhodesia, 261; S. Rhodesia, 239, 241, 2438, 
245,248 ; Tanganyika, 182, 184-5 ; Uganda, 
155, 157, 161; Zanzibar, 225 

Infant Mortality, 28, 105, 171, 196, 256, 339. 
See also Health, Vital Statistics 

Inhambane, 307, 809-10 

Italian Catholic Mission, Kenya, 1383 


Jeanes Teachers. See Visiting Teachers 

Jeanes Fund, xxi 

Jesuit Missions, N. Rhodesia, 268 ; 
desia, 241 

Johnston, Sir Harry, quoted, 145, 148 

Joint Native Councils, 99 

Jones, Thomas Jesse, xvii, xix, xX-xxi 


S. Rho- 


Kabale, 158 

Kabgaye Seminary, 291 

Kafue, 262 

Kahuhia, 122-3 

Kaimosi, 131 

Kambini, 310 

Kambole, 261 

Kampala, 156, 158, 166 ; Mill Hill Schools, 160 

Kamuli, 159 

Kanyongo, 264 

Katigondo Seminary, 161 

Kavirondo. See Native Welfare Associalion 

Keigwin, H. S., 289 

Kenya: Introduction, 101-2; people, 103-7; 
country, 108-9 ; European influences, 109- 
14; education, 114-133; summary and 
recommendations, 184-41 ; agricultural po- 
tentialities, 885-7. See also Settlers, Labor, 
Land Tenure 

Khama, 271 

Kijabe, 129 

Kikuyu, 125-7; Alliance College, proposals for, 
127, 188-9 

Kitega Medical School, 290-1 

Kiungani, 226 


Lambie, Dr., 329, 332 

Labor: Kenya, 106-7, 134; Portuguese East 
Africa, 303-4; on European plantations, 
368 ; taxation and labor, 372-3; attitude 
of organized, 87 


INDEX 


land Tenure: Kenya, 103-5, 134; Nyasaland, 
198 ; Portuguese East Africa, 301 ; North- 
ern Rhodesia, 256-7 ; Southern Rhodesia, 
231-3; Ruanda-Urundi, 286; Swaziland, 
273; Tanganyika, 172-3; Uganda, 143, 
145 ; Zanzibar, 221 
Languages : Right of Natives to vernacular, 19, 
20, 805; discussion of Native, 173-4, 221, 
821; languages of instruction, 8, 19-22, 
140, 178-4, 192, 305, 311-2, 8326; study of, for 
missionaries, 21, 352 
Laws, Dr., xv, 205-8 
Lazarist Fathers, Abyssinia, 327 
Leadership, Native: Production of, by educa- 
tion, xxviii ; character essential, xvii-xviii ; 
Africans, factors in destiny of country, 6 ; 
higher education necessary, 43-5, 68-9, 
282, 290; parallel training of masses and 
leaders, 48-9, 294-5; of women and 
men, 341; field for, in cooperation, 90-2, 
97-9 ; training of African women for, 341 ; 
awakening among African leaders, 10; 
instances of leadership ; in the Cominission, 
6, 8; in Abyssinia, 324-5, 381-2, 333; in 
Basutoland, 269-70; in Bechuanaland, 
271-2, 277; in Ruanda-Urundi, 286-7 ; in 
Transkeian territories, 95; in Swaziland, 
272-3; in Uganda, 95, 148. See also 
Education sections under names of countries 
League of Nations, 80, 169, 173, 284, 336 
Lebombo Diocese, Schools in, 309 
Leisure Time, Use of. See Recreation 
Likoma, 201 ; 
Live Stock : 
Survey of, 16-7, 87-8 ; Natives as stockmen, 
369 
Tables : European owned, 357 ; Native owned, 
359-62; in Kenya, 106, 109, 120; in 
Uganda, 147, 388; in Tanganyika, 172, 
390; in Nyasaland, 195; in Southern 
Rhodesia, 396; in Basutoland, 270; in 
Swaziland, 272; in Bechuanaland, 277, 
398 ; in Abyssinia, 382 
See also Animal Husbandry 
Liverpool, Bishop of, xx, 52 
Livingstonia, 205-8 
Local Day Schools. 
Log Book, School, 57 
London Missionary Society: Bechuanaland, 
277-8 ; Northern Rhodesia, 261-2 ; Southern 
Rhodesia, 249 ; Tanganyika, 185 
Loram, C, T., xxi, 343 ; quoted, 99, 100 
Loudon, 205, 208-11 
Lourengo Marques, 305-10 
Lugard, Sir Frederick, xix-xx, 52, 79, 148 
Lukiko, 95 
Lumbwa Industrial Mission, 132 
Lutheran Missions: Evangelical, of North 
America, Tanganyika, 186. See also Swedish 
Missions, Germans 


See Schools 


Machakos, 119 
Machudi, 278 


413 


Mackay, Alexander, 147, 163 
Mackenzie, Bishop, 200 

Makerere College, 154-6, 167 
Mandates, 77, 79, 80, 284 

Manual Training. See Industrial Work 
Masai School, 120 

Maseno School, 124 

Masses, Education of. See Education 
Maternity Training School, 160 
Matos, Senhor Norton de, 313-4 
Mbarara, 158 

Mbereshi Girls’ School, 261, 342-4 
Mboni, 129 

Medical Work : 

Centers of, in Abyssinia, 329-30, 334; Kenya, 
112, 126, 129, 183; Nyasaland, 203, 207, 
209; Southern Rhodesia, 248; Ruanda- 
Urundi, 288; Tanganyika, 177, 185; 
Uganda, 149, 159-60 

Training for, 66-7, 124, 126, 188, 154, 159-60, 
248-9, 290-1 

See also Health 

Menelik, 324-5 

Mengo High School, 158 

Mengo Hospital, 159 

Methodist Episcopal Mission: Portuguese East 
Africa, 309-10 ; S. Rhodesia, 246-7 

Middle Schools. See Hducation 

Mill Hill Mission: Kenya, 114, 183; Uganda, 
146, 153-4, 160 

Mission of the Holy Ghost: Kenya, 115, 133 ; 
Tanganyika, 181, 187 

Missionaries, Preparation of, 21, 97, 352 

Missions in Africa, Service of, xv, 6, 47, 87-90. 
See also Cooperation, Education, Names of 
Stations and Societies 

Mkhoma, 212-3 

Mohammedans, xxiv, 174, 192, 222 

Morija, 275-6 

Montfort Marist Fathers, 214 

Moral Training. See Character 

Moravian Mission, 186 

Morgenster, 242 

Moton, Robert Russa, xvii, 15 

Mount Silinda, 248-9 

Movable Schools. See Extension (Educational) 

Mozambique, 302-4 

Mukono Training Institution, 157 

Music, 33, 35, 91, 195, 211, 244 





Nabumale, 159 

Nairobi, 111, 114, 122 

Nationalism, 10, 98 

Natives, African. 
Leadership 

Native Affairs Commission, xxi 

Native Councils, 95-6 

Native Languages. See Languages 

Native Leadership. See Leadership 

Native Welfare Association, Kavirondo, 99, 
124-5, 140 


See Cooperation, Education, 


414. INDEX 


Native School Board, 182 

Ndeji, 158 

Negro Education. 

Ngora, 159 

Nilotic Mission, 182 

Normal Training. See Teachers, Training of 

Northern Rhodesia. See Rhodesia 

Nyasaland: Introduction, 193; people, 195-6 ; 
country, 196-9 ; education, 199-215 ; sum- 
mary and recommendations, 215-18 ; agri- 
cultural potentialities, 392-4 

Nyasaland Educational Code, 200, 344: 


See United States 


Occupation of Field, 47 

Oldham, J. H., xxv, 52 

Organization of Education: Dependent on 
five conditions, 47-50; need for elasticity 
and centralization, 57-8; system for, 
proposed, 58-69; statement regarding, in 
Uganda, 164-6; in Tanganyika, 188-9 ; 
in Nyasaland, 202-8, 207-11 ; in Southern 
Rhodesia, 237-8 ; in Basutoland, 274-5 ; in 
Bechuanaland, 277. See also Extensions 
(Educational), Schools, Supervision, Ter- 
minology (Educational), Recommendations 
of the Commission, sections on Education 
under names of countries 

Ormsby-Gore, Major, xix, xx 

Orr, J. R,, Director of Education, Kenya, 118, 
137, 1389 

Out-schools. See Schools 

Owen, Archdeacon, xx, 124 


Paris Evangelical Mission: Basutoland, 275-6 ; 
N. Rhodesia, 261 

Pass Laws, 351 

Pemba, 220-6, passim 

Penhalonga, 243 

Periodicals. See Books and Periodicals 

Phelps-Stokes Fund, xx, xxiv 

Phelps Stokes, Miss Caroline, xx 

Philippines, xxviii 

Polygamy, 346-7 

Portuguese East Africa : Introduction, 296-7 ; 
people, 297-9 ; country, 299-300 ; European 
influences, 300-4; education, 304-11 ; sum- 
mary of recommendations, 312-15; agri- 
cultural potentialities, 894-5 

Primitive Methodist Mission, Northern Rhodesia, 
262 

Printing Presses. See Books and Periodicals 

Professional Training, xviii, 67, 189, 290 

Project Method, 66 


Racial Feeling, 10, 77, '79, 83 
Railways, 118, 150, 177, 198, 258, 304, 316. 
See also Communication, Means of 


Ras Tafari, 323, 831-2, 834 
Recommendations of Commission : 

As to administration, 187, 258-4; advisory 
committees, 216-7, 253, 265, 295, 314, 886-7 ; 
census, 141 ; cooperation of missions with 
government, 136, 188, 216, 251, 314, 336 ; 
colonial Native colleges, 188-9; health, 
135-6, 163-4, 216-7, 218, 227, 251, 254, 294, 
337 ; higher education, 68, 188-9, 217, 266-7, 
338; languages of instruction, 22, 140; 
religious education, 189, 192, 251 ; organiza- 
tion, 167, 217, 295, 815; supervision of 
schools, 187, 192, 217, 228, 253-4, 266, 281, 
295, 815 ; surveys for educational purposes, 
24, 27, 82, 87, 42; terminology, 167, 190-1; 
teacher-training, 139, 190, 254, 266, 294, 
337 ; visiting teachers, 228, 266, 295, 815; 
women and girls’ education, 349-52 

In Abyssinia, 386-7; Basutoland, Bechuana- 
land, Swaziland, 280-3; Kenya, 136-40; 
Nyasaland, 216-8 ; Portuguese East Africa, 
312-15 ; Northern Rhodesia, 265-7; South- 
ern Rhodesia, 2538-4; Ruanda-Urundi, 
293-5; Tanganyika, 189-92; Uganda, 
166-8 ; Zanzibar, 228 

Recreation: Element in education, 8, 31-2; 
survey of, 13-4, 32-3; how to educate in, 
383-5; instances of, in mission work in 
Kenya, 119, 124, 126, 183; in Nyasaland, 
34-5; in S. Rhodesia, 244-47, 249, 844; 
woman’s responsibility for, in primitive 
life, 340 

Relation of Europeans to Africans. See Euro- 
peans 

Religion, Place of, in African life, 145, 174, 196, 
222, 279, 330, 338, 346 

Religious Education, xv, 12, 14-5, 92, 129, 182, 
192, 327, 3383 

Religious Workers, Training of, 67-8, 121, 126, 
186-7, 201, 207, 248. See also Recom- 
mendations of the Commission 

Reserves: In Kenya, 108-6, 111, 114-5, 120, 
129, 134, 386-7; in Southern Rhodesia, 
230-1, 233-4, 238-40, 252, 396 ; in Northern 
Rhodesia, 256-7; attitude towards, in 
Nyasaland, 198; effect of, on agriculture, 
3874-5 

Rhoad, G. W., 129 

Rhodes, Cecil, 6, 83, 246 

Rhodesia, Northern : Introduction, 255 ; people, 
256-7; country, 257-8; European influ- 
ences, 258-9 ; education, 259-64 ; summary 
and recommendations, 264-7 ; agricultural 
potentialities, 395-6 

Rhodesia, Southern : Introduction, 230 ; 
people, 230-4; country, 234; European 
influence, 234-6 ; education, 236-50; sum- 
mary and recommendations, 250-4; agri- 
cultural potentialities, 396-7 

Rikatla, 308 

Roads. See Communication, Means of 

Rockefeller, John D., jr., 86 


INDEX 


Roman Catholic Missions: In Abyssinia, 327 , 
Basutoland, 276 ; Kenya, 133 ; Nyasaland; 
214; Portuguese East Africa, 3807; 
Rhodesia, Northern, 263-4; Rhodesia, 
Southern, 240-1; Ruanda-Urundi, 291-2; 
Tanganyika, 186-7 ; Uganda, 152-3, 160-2. 

Rosenwald Schools, 61 

Ruanda-Urundi: Introduction, 284; country, 
284-5 ; people, 285-6 ; European influences, 
286-9; education, 289-92; summary, 
recommendations, 293-5 

Rural Clubs. See Extension (Educational) 

Rusape, 243 


Sadler, Sir Michael, xx, 52, 63 

Sandford, Colonel, xxvii, 384 

Sanitation, 105, 177. See also Health 

Scandinavian Alliance Mission, 280 

Scenery, 129, 206, 272 

Schools: Discussion of terminology, 58, 167, 
190-1; proposed system: Local Schools 
(village, bush or out-schools), 59-61 ; Inter- 
mediate or Middle Schools (station and 
central station), 61-3; Colonial Native 
College, 68-9 

Boarding Schools : Relative merits of, 350-1 ; 

arrangements of noted, Kenya, 119-20, 123, 
126-7, 129-30 ; Uganda, 156-9, 165 ; Nyasa- 
land, 201, 218; S. Rhodesia, 239-40, 241-2, 
248-4, 245-6, 248-9; N. Rhodesia, 261; 


Portuguese East Africa, 309; Abyssinia, 
828-9 
Girls’ Schools: Arrangements of noted: 


Kenya, 122-3, 126, 129-30 ; Uganda, 157-60 
passim, 165-6; Nyasaland, 201, 203, 207, 
218; Southern Rhodesia, 248-4, 245-6, 
248-9; Northern Rhodesia, 261, 263; 
Basutoland, 276; Swaziland, 279; Portu- 
guese East Africa, 310-11; Abyssinia, 
827-9. See also Administration, Education, 
Extension (Educational), Recommendations 
of the Commission, Organization, Super- 
vision, Women and Girls (Education of), 
section on Education under names of countries 
Government Schools : In Kenya, 119-20; in 

Uganda, 154, 155-6 ; in Tanganyika, 181-3 ; 
in Zanzibar, 225-6 ; in Southern Rhodesia, 
239-40; in Northern Rhodesia, 264; in 
Basutoland, 274-5; in Swaziland, 278 ; 
in Ruanda-Urundi, 290-1; in Portuguese 

East Africa, 306-7 ; in Abyssinia, 326-7 

Science, Teaching of, xiv, 45, 155, 164, 279 

Scottish Missions: Church of Scotland, 125-8, 
184, 202-4, 311; United Free Church o 
Scotland, 185, 204-11, 262 z 

Secondary Education. See Education 

Self-determination, 10, 83 

Self-expression, xvi, xvii, 142, 344 

Serowe, 278 

Settlers, as units of cooperation, 86-8; in 
Kenya, 118, 135 ; Southern Rhodesia, 236 ; 


415 


Northern Rhodesia, 259; Tanganyika, 
175 ; Uganda, 151; settlers’ farm schools, 
128, 140 


Seventh Day Adventists: Abyssinia, 3829; 
Kenya, 182; Nyasaland, 215; Northern 
Rhodesia, 263; Ruanda-Urundi, 292 ; 


Tanganyika, 185 

Sex Teaching in Girls’ Schools, 345 

Shantz, Homer L., xxii; quoted, 8, 300, 319; 
on Agriculture in East Africa, 358-401 

Shaw, Mabel, quoted, 3438-6 

Slater Fund, xxi 

Sleeping Sickness, 149 

Smuts, J. C., xxv 

Society of the Sacred Mission, Basutoland, 
276 

Sociological Background: Abyssinia, 319-325 ; 
Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, 
268-273; Kenya, 102-14; Nyasaland, 
193-9; Portuguese East Africa, 297-304 ; 
Northern Rhodesia, 255-9; Southern 
Rhodesia, 230-6; Ruanda-Urundi, 284-9 ; 
Tanganyika, 169-178; Uganda, 142-151 ; 
Zanzibar, 219-224, See also Community 
Life 

Soil. See Agriculture 

South Africa: Europeans in, 5; as factor in 
progress of East Africa, 5-6, 82-3; educa- 
tional methods in, 21, 36, 68-9, 74; visit 
of Commission to, xxvi-vii 

South Africa General Mission : Nyasaland, 214 ; 
N. Rhodesia, 263 ; Swaziland, 279 

South Africa Baptist Mission, N. Rhodesia, 263 

Stokes, Anson Phelps, Introduction by, xiii- 
XXvili ; quoted, 75 

Supervision of Schools : 

General principles of, 50-3 ; methods adopted 
by missions, 54; lack of, noted, 123, 
164-5, 181, 287-8, 245, 266; recommen- 
dations on government supervision, 58, 192, 
217, 228, 281, 295, 315 ; on mission super- 
vision, 54, 116, 217, 253-4, 266, 281; of 
records and buildings, 55-6. See also Visit- 
ing Teachers 

Store, Native, value of, 213 

Surveys, Educational: Health, 24; homes, 
27; recreation, 32-3; agriculture, 37, 400-1 ; 
Native industry, 42 

Swaziland : Introduction, 268; country, 272 ; 
people, 272-3 ; European influences, 273 ; 
education, 278-80; summary and recom- 
mendations, 280-3 

Swedish Missions, Kenya, 131-2; 
328-9 

Swiss Benedictine Fathers, 187-8 

Swiss Capuchin Fathers, 187 

Swiss Mission (Romande) : 
Africa, 307-9 


Abyssinia, 


Portuguese Hast 


Tanga Government School, 182 


Tanganyika: Introduction, 169-71; people, 


416 


171-4; country, 174-5; European in- 
fluences, 175-8 ; education, 178-188 ; sum- 
mary and recommendations, 188-92; agri- 
cultural potentialities, 389-91 

Taxation: Table of, in East Africa, 372; also 
Basutoland, 271 ; Swaziland, 273 ; Ruanda- 
Urundi, 287-8 ; taxation demands a money 
crop, 372-3 

Teachers, Training of: General Armstrong on 
type of teacher required, 40, 63; recom- 
mendations on method, 50; government 
institutions referred to, 118, 155, 225, 
290; mission institutions referred to, 
121-2, 126-7, 157, 184-5, 201-3, 207, 210, 
226, 240, 242-8, 245-6, 248, 262, 279, 308. 
See also Agriculture, Industrial Work, 
Recommendations of the Commission 

Teachers, Visiting, 55, 186; recommendations 
of the Commission, 192, 228, 254, 266, 295, 
315, 337 

Technical Training. See Industrial Work 

Terminology, Educational, 58-9, 167, 190-1 

Thomas, J. H., quoted, 77 

Three R’s, xvii, 11, 15 

Tjolotjo Government School, 139-40 

Toro, 158-9 

Traders, 87, 363-4. See also Setilers 

Training. See Teachers, Training Industrial 
Work, Medical Work, Religious Training 

Transkeian Native Councils, 95-6 

Trusteeship. See Government 

Tsetse Fly, 149, 256, 395, 398 

Tumutumu, 127-8 

Tuskegee, xvii 


Uganda: Introduction, 142; people, 143-6 ; 
country, 146-7 ; European influences, 14:7- 


51; education, 151-162; summary and 
recommendations, 162-168; agricultural 
potentialities, 387-9 

Umbuluzi Girls’ School, 279 

Umtali, Old, 246 

Union of South Africa. See South Africa 


United Free Church of Scotland: Nyasaland, 
204-11; Northern Rhodesia, 262; Tan- 
ganyika, 185 

United Methodist Mission, Kenya, 131 

United Presbyterian Church of North America, 
in Abyssinia, 329-330 

United States of America: As unit of co- 
operation, 6, 80-1; methods of Negro 
education described, xvii, xviii, 17, 48, 


INDEX 


54-5, 61, 638-4, 70-3; 
Agriculture, 36 

Universities’ Mission to Central Africa : Educa- 
tional policy of, 201; Nyasaland, 200, 
201; Portuguese East Africa, 309 ; North- 
ern Rhodesia, 262-3 ; Tanganyika, 179-80, 
184 

Urban Areas, 108, 111, 117; influence on 
Native women, 348, 350-1 


Department of 


Villages, Native Model, 218, 241, 247 

Vischer, Major and Mrs. Hanns, xxi, 339, 348 

Visiting Teachers. See Teachers, Visiting 

Vital Statistics: Abyssinia, 822; Kenya, 
105-6 ; Nyasaland, 196; Northern 
Rhodesia, 256; Ruanda-Urundi, 288; 
Tanganyika, 171; Zanzibar, 225. See 
also Health, Infant Mortality 


Waa, 119-20 

Waddilove Institute, 244-5 

Washington, Booker T., xvii, 15 

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society : Portu- 
guese East Africa, 310-1; Northern 
Rhodesia, 268 ; Southern Rhodesia, 244-5 ; 
Swaziland, 280 

Weston, Bishop, 226 

White Fathers: Nyasaland, 214; Northern 
Rhodesia, 264 ; Ruanda, 291-2 ; Tanganyika, 
186-7 ; Uganda, 158, 160-2 

Wilkie, Mrs. A. W., quoted, 72-3 

Women and Girls, Education of : Importance 
of, 339-42; obstacles and _ difficulties : 
social custom, 346-7; traditional position 
of women, 847; attitude of Africans to- 
wards, 347-8 ; western influence in urban 
areas, 3848-9; recommendations of the 
Commission, 349-52 ; lack of, in Tangany- 
ika, 188. See also Schools 


Zanzibar: Introduction, 219; people, 220-3 ; 
Arab and European influences, 223-4; 
education, 224-7; summary and recom- 
mendations, 227-9 

Zanzibar Government Training School, 225 








rst fj LES 
ARDEN ASe PRESS 
, : 


ae . ~ % 
ORS AF 





Sat 


W. H. SMITH & SON 

STAMFORD STREET 

LONDON, 38.£E.1 
ENGLAND 





‘cea 
pity f 


Ss Ww; 
- + 








aan UA Ne 








Dy Aen 
aa” 


) ¥-5 ’ 
p a 4 
Td ed 4 a 


* 
) 


io ; 


< Seat ts 





LA1501 .A26 
Education 


a study of 


a; 


oO 
= 
ran 
<= 
~ 
” 
ia] 


inE 


Library 


Theological Seminary—Speer 


| 


Princeton 


| 


| 


| 


UI 


| 
| 


| 


| 
| 


I 


0141 5555 


0 











